


Hey Sweetheart (This Could Be A Start)

by 64907



Category: Arashi (Band), Japanese Actor RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Wedding Planner, Apologies, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Light Angst, M/M, Multi, Mutual Pining, Original Character(s), Romance, Sexual Content, Wedding Planning, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-29
Updated: 2015-03-29
Packaged: 2018-03-20 05:46:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 38,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3638997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/64907/pseuds/64907
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jun is a wedding planner and Sho accidentally crashes a wedding that took Jun months to plan and to perfect. Naturally, Jun ends up hating Sho, but after even more weddings, they find a way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> After the angstfest that is TFAA, I figured I might as well attempt something as stupid and as cheesy as this one, where everything is cliché and predictable, but at least nothing hurts. This was my attempt to write my favorite trope of all time, the ‘mutual pining where they both think it’s unrequited’. This is also posted on [Livejournal](http://64907.livejournal.com/12489.html).

Sho is running late.  
  
It’s not his fault, though. He woke up on time, dressed up on time, and prepared everything on time. He dutifully prepared the envelope containing the gift money and his best wishes the night before. He had his suit dry-cleaned and pressed, his car full-tanked just to be sure, his car tires in perfect condition. He prepared for everything even days before the wedding.  
  
Except that he only remembered his phone when he was already on the road and he had to go back for it, of course.  
  
He placed it on his counter as he adjusted his tie one last time, and he was so preoccupied with double checking the envelope inside his suit jacket that he totally forgot about the device until he was already ten minutes away.  
  
Now here he is, stuck in traffic and his phone, after going back for it, is ringing incessantly on his dashboard, the caller ID none other than the groom himself. Sho picks up on the third ring, his other hand tapping impatiently on the leather of his steering wheel. He glances at the digital clock and knows he’s fucked when he sees 2:50PM.  
  
The wedding starts at three.  
  
“Hello?” he says, tucking the phone between his right cheek and shoulder when the line starts to move again. Not that there’s much movement because Sho knows he’s still more than ten minutes away from the venue if this traffic continues.  
  
“Sho-kun,” the person on the other line says, and he sounds disappointed that Sho wants to apologize already. “You didn’t forget it’s my wedding, did you?”  
  
Sho runs a hand down his face. “No, I did not, Sora-kun.” He glances at the clock again and curses inwardly at the 2:52PM blinking back at him. He’ll never make it on time. “I’m on my way.”  
  
He hears his friend sigh on the other line. Shinohara Sora is one of his closest friends during college, a study and drinking buddy that has seen both the best and the worst of Sakurai Sho during university. He had been there to comfort Sho when Sho crammed a research paper and still had the nerve to get angry at the grade he got. He had been there drinking and celebrating with Sho when they both passed macroeconomic theory after three days of foregoing sleep and practically living in the library as they chugged down mug after mug of caffeine.  
  
Sora is getting married after seven years of dating and eventual engagement to another classmate of theirs, Tsukino Ran-chan, a simple woman Sho became immediate friends with because she didn’t mind Sho’s upbringing. Status meant little to Ran-chan, and Sho, who lived nearly all his life being seen as somebody else because of his father’s position in the government, was thankful for that treatment. Ran did not judge; she treated Sho like she treated everybody else, with patience in her eyes and a very kind smile. It’s only natural that Sho remained friends with the two of them even after graduation.  
  
Sho’s only regret is disappointing both of his friends on their special day by not showing up on time. “Sora-kun,” Sho begins, trying his best to convey how sorry he is with only his voice, “I’ll be there, I promise.”  
  
He hears another sigh. “Well, there’s always the reception, Sho-kun. Ran-chan made sure we had shellfish for you, after all.” Sho can hear his friend smile from the other line. “She said we needed to have shellfish or else you might forget to come, being the workaholic chief that you are.” His friend laughs on the other line before Sho hears him pause. “I have to go. I’m getting hitched, you see.” His friend laughs again, and this time Sho manages a smile despite his disappointment with himself and his depleting patience regarding the traffic.  
  
“Can’t miss your own wedding, Sora-kun,” he says, and Sora laughs loudly before agreeing.  
  
“The next time we see each other, which is hopefully later, I’m a changed man,” Sora says and Sho grins. “Gotta go, Sho-kun. Catch you later. Be there for the reception at least, all right?” Sora asks, and Sho barely manages a “Yeah, definitely” before the line drops dead. Sho cuts the line and focuses on the road again.  
  
He sighs, throwing his head back against the headrest. He can change his route at the next exit. He figures that he might as well drive straight to the venue of the reception itself if he’s going to miss the ceremony already. At least he will be just in time for that one.  
  
\--  
  
Today’s the day and Jun’s never been this excited before in his eight-year career as a wedding planner.  
  
Well, it’s not everyday one gets to plan for their best friend’s wedding, so there’s that. Jun checks his tablet to review every section of every plan, his eyes quickly scanning each item on his checklist and each mark he left on it. He looks around the hall, eyes checking every corner and every design. He quickly scans the aisle, making a quick examination of the bouquets placed at each row, taking in the symmetry and the meaning behind each carefully selected flower.  
  
Everything should be perfect, everything should be in place, and everything should go as planned.  
  
He feels someone clap him hard on the shoulder. “Jun, what will it take for you to drop the wedding planner role and just be my best man for now?” Shun asks beside him, a grin on his face.  
  
Jun grins back, tucking his tablet under his arm. “Comes with the job,” he explains. “I planned it so it’s only natural that I need to check if everything is in its rightful place. Imagine Yuu-chan’s face if something goes wrong.”  
  
Shun laughs. “She’ll look so betrayed, I bet.” Another clap, this time close to his back, before he feels Shun wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “But you know, everything’s perfect because you planned it, and you planned it with her. You two practically left me out of it! So can you please just be who I appointed you to be? I kind of need a best man here.”  
  
Jun tilts his head. “Fine, I’m keeping the tablet,” he promises, handing the device to one of his assistants, Riisa-chan. “I’ll be the best friend and the best man you need.”  
  
Shun grins. “At the worst case, it’s only for a limited time, Jun. Just be the best man for today and you can go ahead and plan for other people’s weddings for the rest of your life and never plan for your own. I won’t care anymore.”  
  
Jun nudges Shun with his elbow in slight protest, making the other man laugh. Shun has been his friend since high school, and Jun has an inkling Shun has known ever since, that he will spend his days helping other people find happiness and neglect his own, given his preferences. What he’s thankful for is that Shun never held that preference against him and their friendship didn’t suffer because of it.  
  
If anything, Shun is just as accepting about it as everybody else around him and Jun is grateful for all of it.  
  
He and Shun turn around when they see Mao-chan, a common friend of theirs during high school, appear from a corner and point an accusatory finger at them. She then places her hands on her hips and approaches them. Mao with her hands on her hips is never a good sign, and Jun turns to Shun and they both nod in understanding and at the same time.  
  
“There you are,” Mao says, shooting Shun the ‘I can’t believe it’s still up to me to look for you’ look. She had that look on her face ever since Jun and Shun started cutting classes to read manga at the school rooftop and for some reason, she took it upon herself to look for them and haul them back to classes. Jun will never forget it.  
  
Mao sighs. “They’re wondering where’s the groom so maybe, maybe you can get over to your position?” Shun laughs sheepishly, before giving Jun’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze because they both know it’s him Mao will turn to next.  
  
“And you,” she says, turning to Jun and Jun raises both hands in surrender. “I can’t believe you intend to make your own best friend late for his own wedding.”  
  
Jun sneaks a glance at Shun’s now retreating figure, realizing he’ll get no help from his friend because Shun’s already deserted him, the traitor.  
  
“I was doing last-minute checks, you see.”  
  
Mao quirks an eyebrow. “You did that an hour ago, Jun-kun. And before that, two hours ago. I’m prepared to bet that before I arrived you thoroughly examined the entire venue every hour, checking if the ribbons are in the right length and the carpet is in the right shade of red.”  
  
Just to spite her, Jun raises an eyebrow of his own. “It’s crimson, not just red.”  
  
She shoots him a look. “Go to your place, you’re the best man.”  
  
Jun flashes her a smile. “I’m still your boss, Mao-chan,” he reminds her. Mao works as his events coordinator at One Love, a wedding shop he set up with a childhood friend. Said childhood friend is absent from this event because he called in sick, but Jun knows that today’s the release of latest Dragon Quest and of course Nino has to get his hands on that one first.  
  
Not even the world getting destroyed is going to come between Nino and Dragon Quest, after all.  
  
Mao doesn’t look intimidated. Apart from the years they spent together as high school classmates, eight years of working with Jun surely toughened her up. Jun is known for unreasonable demands, for perfectionism, for accuracy, and while it is a challenge to work for and with him, it can be rewarding in its own way.  
  
“Go to your place,” Mao repeats, then she grins. “Sir.”  
  
Jun laughs. “One of the things I love about you, Mao-chan,” he says, already walking down the hall after Shun, “is that cheek of yours. No wonder you’re an effective coordinator.”  
  
Mao flashes her a smirk, one that she definitely perfected from watching Nino. Her smirk reminds Jun of Nino’s too much. “Save the flattery for later, Jun-kun. Wedding starts in three,” she reminds him, pointing to her white gold watch bracelet.  
  
Jun narrows his eyes, returning her smirk. “Two minutes and forty, you mean,” he corrects her, his hands fixing his coat. “I leave everything to you.” He nods at her, and Mao dutifully nods back.  
  
“Go and be the best friend and the best man,” she says, winking at him. “I got this.”  
  
Jun turns on his heel and marches, forgetting everything about the planning and everything that can go wrong and just becoming what Shun asked for.  
  
\--  
  
It’s almost five in the afternoon when Sho finally reached the reception venue and he hurriedly parks his car to the nearest vacant space. He checks the envelope in his coat pocket and hurriedly gets off, barely remembering to press the button to lock the car. He rushes inside, looking around for any personnel in the event hall.  
  
Sho thinks his luck must be really nonexistent when he finds the information desk empty and the hallways completely devoid of people. It’s only then that he remembers he also forgot the invitation at home, and Sho angrily storms to the right hallway, figuring he might as well pick a way to go if he has no idea where to go.  
  
So much for having everything prepared, Sho, he thinks, berating himself already.  
  
He passes by a lot of empty function rooms, some with decorations being removed, some with a couple of people setting up decorations and arranging furniture. Sho figures that the chances of Sora and Ran’s wedding being the only wedding reception held today is high because it’s the middle of January and January is never a popular wedding month in Japan. It’s always October, and that’s one of the reasons Ran set this date. She never liked the idea of accumulating attention, and naturally the idea of a quiet January wedding sounded perfect to her.  
  
Also because she claimed it’s near Sho’s birthday and it’s her and Sora’s gift to him. Sho may not be Sora’s best man, but he’s one of the couple’s closest friends and Ran always had a fondness for him because of all the days the three of them spent in university.  
  
Confident with the idea that he can eventually find his friends’ wedding despite the lack of invitation and general preparedness, he continues down the hall.  
  
\--  
  
Everything is going according to Jun’s plan and yet he still keeps a watchful eye as the caterers move to their designated places. The wedding ceremony went smoothly, and judging from Yuu-chan’s happy smile and Shun’s enthusiastic thumbs up every now and then when Jun shares a glance with him, they’re pretty much pleased with the way things are going already.  
  
Jun wishes he can say the same for himself, but he’s not called an efficient wedding planner for nothing. He consults his tablet for the seating arrangement provided by Yuu some months ago and makes a mental note of who already arrived and those who haven’t yet. At the same time, Jun makes sure that the catering staff can see how he watches everything like a hawk. The caterers aren’t directly involved with One Love and yet it’s part of his responsbilitiy as wedding planner if they screw something up.  
  
He wants this to go as smoothly and as perfect as possible, and Jun’s job is only done once he gets to see Shun and Yuu’s bridal car speeding away to the airport for their Hawaiian honeymoon.  
  
Hawaii. Someday Jun would love to go there too, but it’s not like he has the time and he has anyone who could enjoy the trip with him.  
  
Mao clicks her tongue beside him. “Stop glaring at them, Jun-kun,” she admonishes him, hitting his shoulder with the back of her hand. “They haven’t done anything wrong.”  
  
Jun shoots her a look. “You mean they haven’t done anything wrong _yet_ ,” he says as he follows a waiter’s movement with a critical eye. “And I’m not glaring, I’m observing. It’s different. If I look at them this way it will make them reconsider things if they’re thinking of messing up.”  
  
Mao rolls her eyes. She’s one of the very few people who can do that to Jun, Nino being the other. Jun can count with one hand how many people have the courage to do something like that while he’s looking. “If you look at them like you’re going to skin them alive, the chances of them messing up actually become exponentially high,” Mao says, her hand lowering Jun’s tablet. “You do know you look murderous, don’t you?”  
  
Jun shrugs. Not his fault he’s got a really distinct eyebrows along with a set of really distinct facial features. He can look completely serious and interested and people will interpret it as being intimidating. He’s used to it.  
  
“I’m just ensuring that everything goes according to plan,” he says, a little defensive.  
  
Mao, obviously, doesn’t buy it. She grabs Jun’s tablet and flicks at the screen, doing a quick scan of every note and revision Jun has saved. “For probably the hundredth time. Seems to me everything’s going according to plan,” she says, tapping a finger on the screen to stress her point. Mao fixes him a look. “Seriously, everything’s fine, Jun-kun. Relax.”  
  
Jun refuses to look at her anymore, knowing that she’s probably right as usual and he’s just overthinking things. Still, he doesn’t want to admit that so he says, “I’m going to check on the dessert,” as a way to excuse himself, and he hears Mao’s amused giggle behind him.  
  
Even without Nino around, Jun thinks he can hardly notice any difference. She’s becoming a bit too much like Nino given all these years of working together, and Jun sighs as he makes his way towards the desserts table.  
  
Having two Ninos around in every day of his working life doesn’t seem like a very promising future, but it’s not like Jun has any other choice.  
  
\--  
  
Sho reaches his sixth function hall when he finally gives up and whips his phone out. He knows it’ll be rude to call someone who literally just got married, but he’s desperate and lost and there’s no one to help him since he doesn’t even remember where to go exactly even if there is someone.  
  
He hurriedly dials Sora’s number and listens to it ring before getting the recorded voicemail prompt. He curses and hangs up, his other hand already massaging his temple. He’s already getting a headache from all the thinking and the panicking ever since he left his apartment. Nothing seems to be going the way he intended for it to go and Sho thinks that if there’s a god, then god must really hate his guts right now for all of these to happen on the same day.  
  
On his friends’ most important day at that.  
  
He hits redial again and sighs loudly when he gets the same voicemail prompt. He immediately scrolls for Ran’s number and hits the call button a little forcefully. He checks the time on his wristwatch and sees that he’s been roaming the halls for more than ten minutes already.  
  
Sho utters another colorful swear when he hears Ran’s recorded voice prompting a voicemail. He shuts his eyes in an attempt to recall all the other university friends attending the same event. He flicks his thumb across the screen of his phone rather hurriedly, hitting the call button when he sees names of people he remembers being invited.  
  
Like Sora and Ran, he gets nothing but voicemail prompts and Sho continues walking down the hall while cursing himself. He clutches at his phone tightly, trying to suppress the desire to fling it to the side. To think that the reason he went late is that he came back for the device.  
  
Said device is useless now, he thinks angrily, and he pockets his phone in an attempt to save it from any future destruction because of his temper. It’s becoming increasingly tempting to chuck his phone to the wall and see it in pieces on the floor. He continues to walk down the hall, turning his head left and right to check his surroundings.  
  
When he turns to the next corner and sees a wedding reception being held just beyond the glass doors, he breathes a sigh of relief and rushes inside.  
  
\--  
  
Yuu has provided Jun with descriptions of everyone invited. She and Shun kept the whole thing between families and closest friends, so Jun more or less knew most of the guests. Majority he knew from Shun’s side, but Yuu patiently introduced her friends to Jun when they all tried on their custom-made dresses more than a month ago.  
  
Mao told her it was Yuu’s way of looking out for him and trying to get him to see someone, an idea that Nino snickered at. Jun remembers how Mao gave him a pat on the shoulder, saying, “You can’t blame her, Jun-kun. With looks like that, I mean.”  
  
He also remembers raising an eyebrow at that. “Are you saying that I look good?”  
  
At that time, Nino laughed from behind his desk and Jun turned to him with a frown. “You definitely look more than just good, Jun-kun,” Nino said, pointing to him with a pen with a yellow fuzzy ball attached at the end. “And it’s such a shame that you’re not aware of just how much.”  
  
Jun thinks back on that day and he thinks that Nino might have a point, because he clearly remembers Mao nodding when Nino said that to him. “Yuu-san’s friends gushed at you and kept asking me if you were available,” Mao said at that time.  
  
In Jun’s defense, it’s not that he’s not aware. He knows how he looks like, having to wake up and see the same face every day in front of the mirror. It’s just that anything not involving weddings isn’t something he’s confident with.  
  
If there’s no bride or groom involved, Jun’s confidence becomes shattered to minute pieces and his tendency to overthink gets in the way, which explains his lack of recent activities in the dating department. Sure, he’s had a couple of casual invites here and there. Well, a couple doesn’t cut it. He’s had _a lot_. Nino keeps a tally of it in a scoresheet he had pinned to the bulletin board at the shop’s backroom labeled with ‘the number of times the people who came to this shop asked Jun-kun out’. Everybody had their chance to add a dash or two to it, depending on how many they had witnessed that day.  
  
The highest recorded score happened in one of Nino’s shifts with Jun, the one wherein Jun got nine casual invites in one day. Nino gloated for a long time for being the top contributor to the scoreboard, and soon enough, it became a contest for everyone in One Love except for Jun himself. He tends to get a lot when the brides-to-be take their bridesmaids to the shop to select designs and materials, and most especially when it’s time for gown fitting.  
  
Most of those invitations he declined because of work, some he agreed to out of respect to their client (and ended up regretting), and some he downright declined because he felt that he couldn’t determine the true intention behind the invitation.  
  
“It’s an invitation, Jun-kun,” he remembers Nino saying to him at that time, “not a death sentence. But then again, if you’re not interested in the first place, why stretch it?”  
  
Whatever, Jun thinks. He’s here now as the wedding organizer. He’s in his element and his job is to ensure that everything goes according to the preferences set by his clients. Today his desire to deliver is only heightened by the fact that his clients are his friends. Jun promised himself that he would work his ass off to make this the best wedding for Shun and Yuu, and today’s the day to see that promise fulfilled.  
  
He keeps an eye on every person on the guest list, cross-checking with the receptionist, one of Nino’s recruits, Yuriko-chan. She has a penchant for saying unusual things from time to time, but she’s efficient and Jun loves that about her. Nino may be many things, most might be borderline negative, but Jun can never deny that Nino is an excellent judge of character.  
  
Yuriko flashes him a confident smile and replies positively when he asks, “Is everything going as planned?”  
  
Mao calls that his trademark question and the number one question the people who work for him are terrified of hearing. Nino, meanwhile, calls it the “type of question only Jun-kun will ask” every time Nino’s training a new recruit. Jun still doesn’t know what exactly does Nino mean by that. He and Nino are the only wedding planners at One Love, and the rest of the people around them work as their joint staff. Being another organizer, he always thought Nino asks the same questions whenever Nino gets to be the planner for a wedding.  
  
But knowing Nino, he probably asks the simplest of questions like “How are we doing so far?” which is, in Jun’s opinion, the easiest question anyone can use to lie to him. They can say that everything is going well but that might mean that it’s going well for their standards, not for Jun’s. That is exactly the reason why he opts for something like asking if everything is going according to plan. Sometimes he even goes for “Is everything satisfactory?” knowing that what he means by ‘satisfactory’ is if everything is up to Matsumoto Jun’s personal standards as a wedding organizer.  
  
That question is undoubtedly the most difficult one to answer for anyone who works for him, and Jun knows that so he tries to use it only minimally and only when the occasion calls for it.  
  
He and Yuriko turn to the door at the same time when a man wearing a gray suit rushes in, and Jun racks his brains momentarily when he fails to recognize the person. He turns to Yuriko for an explanation and she immediately shakes her head at him, indicating wordlessly that all guests should have arrived by now and that they’re no longer expecting anyone.  
  
Jun turns to the man and takes note of his flushed face, the beads of sweat that makes bits of his hair cling to his forehead. He looks like he’s sweating too much in that suit of his and while Jun feels a little sorry for him, Jun figures there’s no time like the present so he makes his way towards the man and prepares his most polite speech.  
  
If Nino was here, Nino would have claimed he would light a candle for the man’s eternal repose because Jun’s polite speech is far from being that. No one crashes a wedding Jun worked hard to plan no matter who they are. No one destroys months of hardwork and dedication, and that’s on Jun’s pride as a wedding planner and today, on his pride as Shun’s best man.  
  
If he has to drag this stranger out of the reception hall, then he will do it without hesitation.  
  
\--  
  
Sho rushes and looks around, squinting when the bright lights suddenly hit his eyes. The corridors earlier were only adequately lit, and he has to rub his eyes to help them adjust quickly. All the walking around he did made him sweat like hell, and he feels so stuffed in his suit.  
  
He loosens his tie in an attempt to make himself comfortable. Sho supposes that no one will really pay that much attention to him since he’s late and everybody’s busy digging into whatever’s prepared. He frowns when he sees a man approaching him, wearing a crisp dark suit and possessing well-defined facial features.  
  
Sho feels his cheeks growing hot when he realizes he’s staring, and hurriedly tries to look away even if he already caught the man’s eye. Sho wonders what someone who looks this attractive can possibly want from him. He wonders whose friend this one is. Is it Sora’s or Ran’s? Sho supposes he can ask either of his two friends about this person after he gives them an apology for being late.  
  
Before he can take a step towards the receptionist, however, a hand shoots out in front of him. Sho looks up and finds himself meeting brown eyes. For a moment Sho just stares at the man in front of him, not registering a bit of what he’s saying.  
  
Then the man snaps his fingers in front of him to get his attention and Sho blinks furiously and frowns.  
  
“You were saying?” he asks, and he congratulates himself for being so smooth. Way to go, Sho. Sweating like hell in your suit, running late for your friends’ wedding, and being completely stupefied in front of an attractive stranger.  
  
Sho honestly finds himself wanting to know the stranger’s name even after everything that’s happening.  
  
“I said,” the man in the dark suit repeats, his voice not in accordance with the smile he has on his face, “I don’t think I know you.” The man pauses, giving Sho a once over, before adding a, “Sir,” as an afterthought.  
  
Well, I don’t know you too but I sure as hell want to do something to fix that right now, Sho thinks, and he has to close his eyes for a moment to control himself. He wants to slap himself for thinking of hitting on someone at his friends’ wedding reception. What kind of friend is he? He arrives late, gets lost in the maze of a venue, and the first thing he thinks of doing once he reaches his destination is getting the name of someone whom he’s immediately attracted to.  
  
If there is a god, then god is surely having a lot of fun in Sho’s expense.  
  
“I’m here for my friends’ wedding,” Sho explains as he glances at his wristwatch. He’s already eighteen minutes late from the indicated start of the reception which was five in the afternoon. “And I’m already running late, so could you please—?” Sho leaves the question hanging and gestures for the man to move aside, but the man merely raises an eyebrow and takes a step in front of Sho.  
  
The man crosses his arms. “I’m afraid not,” he says, the smile from his face now gone and Sho feels his blood run cold. The look the man is giving him is far from friendly, and Sho’s pretty sure that’s the kind of look that can kill any lesser being.  
  
“I’m not letting you through when you’re not even invited,” the man finishes, and that’s it, Sho thinks, that’s it. He’s sorry for what’s going to say and how he’s going to react, but he’s had enough bad luck today and no matter how gorgeous this stranger is, Sho won’t back down, especially since he was just accused of being uninvited.  
  
Sho pinches the bridge of his nose, his patience wearing thin. “Listen, I don’t know who you are,” he begins, and the man just keeps the eyebrow up, “but I’m having a really awful day and I’m late and the only thing I want to do right now is to attend my friends’ wedding.” Technically he’s lying a little because he also wants to have this stranger’s name but that’s not the point. “I already missed the ceremony and I still have a lot of an apology to make.”  
  
He exhales. The man doesn’t even blink. “So I’ll ask you again: can you please—?” Sho isn’t even done yet when he hears a stern “No, absolutely not” from the man’s full lips. Sho notices the beauty marks surrounding those lips and a part of his mind, the part that remains attracted despite the rudeness and stubbornness from earlier, wonders how it will feel like to touch those markings with his fingers, with his own lips.  
  
Sho shakes his head to dispel the thought. Not now, not now, he repeats. When he opens his eyes, he finds himself locked in a staring game with the man, and Sho wills himself not to lose. The man has the most piercing brown eyes Sho has ever seen, and Sho thinks he’s beginning to see a bit of hate in there that slightly terrifies him.  
  
Only slightly because he’s still mostly attracted and weirdly enough, his attraction outweighs everything.  
  
He only notices the presence of a woman when she tugs at his sleeve and at the man’s at the same time. Sho sees her lean to whisper something in the man’s ear, something too soft for him to catch. The man then shoots him a look Sho can only describe as hate, then the woman pulls the both of them outside with a “Please come with me,” said to him in a very polite manner.  
  
That’s the most polite thing Sho has heard all day, so he follows.  
  
Outside, the woman seems to breathe a sigh of relief. The man, however, crosses his arms and keeps the look of detest on his face.  
  
Whatever did I do to you? Sho wants to ask, but he holds his tongue and tries his best to meet the man’s stare head-on.  
  
“Sir,” the woman says, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention and Sho turns to her. It’s only then that Sho remembers she’s there and he’s sorry, but the man’s still staring at him and those eyes throw him off. “Sir, may we see your invitation please?”  
  
Sho sighs. “I left it at home,” he explains, and he hears the man snort, probably done as loudly as he can for Sho to hear it clearly.  
  
Sho wonders what did he do to this guy for him to get a treatment such as this on first meet. He has to keep on reminding himself that he’s here for Sora and Ran, and the last thing they would want is for him to get involved in an altercation with any of the other guests, no matter how lacking in manners they are.  
  
Not that the stranger has downright disrespected him, it’s just that Sho’s patience is on the edge given the circumstances that are happening right now.  
  
The woman opens her mouth to say something but the man cuts her off. “Let me handle this, Mao-chan, now that we’re outside,” the man says, his eyes still on Sho. Sho thinks that the man is three seconds away from chucking a knife at him from the way he’s looking at Sho.  
  
The woman addressed as Mao-chan sighs in defeat and nods. She turns to leave, but not before shooting Sho a look of pity. She even mouths an “I’m sorry” before she enters the glass doors once again.  
  
When Sho turns his attention back to the man, he gets an accusatory finger pointed at his face, the man’s face mere inches from his own. “I should have said this the moment you walked through that door,” he begins, and Sho simply stands there, waiting, because he knows if he says anything this stranger will only hate him more.  
  
“You see, this is my friend’s wedding. My best friend,” the man explains, his eyes narrowing in an obvious attempt to rein in his temper. Sho tilts his head in confusion. He thought he knew most of Sora’s and Ran’s closest friends, being one of those himself.  
  
Who exactly is this guy?  
  
The man exhales, but he still keeps the finger pointed at Sho’s face. “I’m not going to let you just walk in and ruin something that took months to plan,” he says through gritted teeth. “Months,” he repeats, like Sho didn’t hear him the first time. “I spent months planning this whole thing and there’s no way in hell I am going to let you crash and completely ruin something I put a lot of effort into.”  
  
Sho frowns at that. Crash? Did this guy just accuse him of wedding crashing because he has no invitation to show as proof? Sho feels his temper rearing its ugly head and he finds himself unable to control it when the man doesn’t remove the finger he has pointed on Sho’s face.  
  
“I’m not crashing into anything,” Sho says, his voice clearly indicating how pissed off he’s becoming. As attractive this stranger might be, he has a really shitty attitude and Sho swears he’s not going to back down without a fight from someone like that. “Why are you so pissed at me anyway? I get it, you’re a friend, a best friend you said, of Sora-kun or Ran-chan’s, but what did I ever do to you?”  
  
The man’s eyes narrow at the mention of the names and the next thing Sho gets is a frown. The man looks more menacing this way and Sho knows he’s so close to getting a scream thrown his way so he braces himself.  
  
Instead of a scream though, the man surprises him by laughing, but it’s a laugh completely without a trace of mirth. It’s sarcastic, and it only makes Sho angrier. “I don’t know who that is,” the man says, the corners of his mouth turned up. His eyes still have nothing but hatred for Sho. “I don’t know who are those people you mentioned but let me tell you this,” the man pauses, before stepping right into Sho’s space that makes Sho take a step back.  
  
“This here?” the man asks, pointing at the reception going on behind him with a thumb. “This is not ‘Sora-kun and Ran-chan’s wedding’. I don’t know who they are and before you say anything else, I know it’s not theirs.” He fixes Sho a look that clearly tells Sho that he should shut up unless he wants to get harmed in any way.  
  
“I know it’s not their wedding because they’re not my clients,” the man says before flashing Sho a smirk that doesn’t reach his eyes. He gives Sho another once over. “You got the wrong wedding.”  
  
Sho blinks at that, his eyes immediately going back to the reception and squinting to check the principal table. Even this far, Sho is certain he has never met any of those people before. He feels heat climbing steadily to his cheeks in embarrassment.  
  
“And I know because I planned for this wedding right here,” the stranger finishes, and Sho quickly glances at the small board beside the receptionist. This guy is a wedding planner, and Sho’s eyes hurriedly scan the name of the shop to check if it rings a bell.  
  
He reads One Love and he realizes that it doesn’t.  
  
He opens his mouth to say an apology but the man cuts him off with a harsh “I don’t want to hear it.” The man flashes him a smile, one that’s borderline sardonic. “So I’ll appreciate it very much if you leave now. I have a speech upcoming, you see.” The man tilts his head towards the reception for effect, and he shoots Sho a look that seems to ask, why are you still here?  
  
Sho takes a step back. “I’m sorry,” he still says, trying his best to make it sound sincere, because it is. It was an honest mistake, and Sho apologizes for the problems he may have caused (though he thinks there’s hardly any problem; only a few people noticed him arrive after all), as well as for his rudeness towards this man, this wedding organizer who had every right to be rude at him seeing as he just accidentally crashed somebody’s wedding.  
  
The man quirks an eyebrow. “I thought I told you that I didn’t want to hear it.”  
  
Sho sighs in defeat. “Still,” he begins, looking at the man’s brown eyes and hoping his sincerity can come across as he bows, “I apologize. I’m so sorry, I honestly had no idea.”  
  
The man just cocks his head at him, still frowning. Whatever Sho might have thought of saying gets cut off when his phone rings in his pocket, and he hurriedly pulls it out. He nearly screams in happiness and relief when he sees Ran’s name as the caller ID.  
  
He makes one last apologetic bow towards the man in the dark suit before turning his back and answering the call, a hand over his mouth for Ran to hear him clearly.  
  
\--  
  
With the man’s back now turned away from him, Jun finally allows himself to breathe. As he stares on the man’s suit-clad back though, a part of him feels guilty that he just did a swan dive without thinking and confronted the man most directly. It did the trick, yes, but Jun feels awful now that he found out that this man is not exactly having a field day today and it was all just an honest mistake.  
  
He’s sure that the reason Mao stepped in earlier and hauled them away was that they were starting to get attention, and Jun knows that at that time, he looked less than a second away from screaming at the stranger’s face. He makes a mental reminder to thank Mao for her prompt action when he gets back inside.  
  
Jun lifts his head and sees the man’s back still on him, his relieved voice murmuring something Jun can’t catch. Jun supposes his work is done, the stranger (uninvited guest, his mind supplies) seems to already know where he’s supposed to be.  
  
Which is not here, Jun thinks almost immediately. A part of him is still unwilling to forget the incident. This stranger in a gray suit actually crashed Shun and Yuu’s wedding, and it’s only because of Jun’s immediate handling of the situation that it didn’t cause any scene.  
  
Of all weddings to crash into, why this and why today? Jun, even if he feels mildly guilty and has something akin to pity for the man, cannot find in him to forgive the stranger completely because it’s on his pride as a wedding planner and as a best man to make sure that this day is memorable for his best friend and his wife.  
  
Even if it was an honest mistake, Jun finds himself still unable to cut the stranger some slack because it took months of dedication to put this whole thing together and a single miss is something he won’t stand for, regardless if it was done by his staff at One Love or not. He pities this stranger, yes, but his initial reaction, which is anger, overrides the pity and even now Jun finds himself glaring daggers at the man’s back.  
  
The stranger still hasn’t left nor finished talking to whoever it is on his phone, and Jun fears that if this stranger doesn’t leave now, Jun himself might have to take matters into his own hands and haul him away to that far corner where no one can see him.  
  
Jun turns around to take a glance at the ongoing reception behind him and sure enough, some people are already staring. Some are even craning their necks to see who the man in the gray suit is, and Jun knows that the only reason the guests can’t see the stranger properly is that Jun’s body is blocking the view.  
  
That settles it then, Jun decides.  
  
He clears his throat pointedly and when the stranger turns, Jun shoots him a look that he hopes conveys how much he needs for this guy to scoot and be gone. He has a best man speech in—he glances at his wristwatch—less than two minutes and he really needs this guy to leave and be out of his mind and his life.  
  
“I need you to leave,” Jun tells the man, giving him a look that definitely says, now, as in now, leave now. He hopes that much is conveyed. “People are looking at us,” Jun says carefully, tilting his head towards the reception behind him, “and I need you to go.”  
  
He gives the man another once over. “Sir,” he adds, a little pointedly. The sooner he’s out of Jun’s life, the better. This stranger looks like an accident waiting to happen and Jun thinks he already has his hands full with his staff and all the planning he has to do in the upcoming months.  
  
Jun honestly cannot get involved any further and he thinks this man has done more enough damage. The man mumbles something into his phone and finally hangs up, but he still doesn’t move fast enough for Jun’s standards. Jun sighs before he takes the initiative to put his arm around the man’s shoulders in an apparent gesture of camaraderie, leading the stranger further down the hallway.  
  
“The last thing I need,” Jun says carefully, his voice low and his mouth close to the stranger’s ear, “is for my friend’s guests to begin to wonder if something’s going on, so let me lead you out of here.” Jun feels the stranger tremble as they walk together, and Jun catches a whiff of the man’s aftershave.  
  
Strangely enough, it smells achingly similar to the one he uses, the one Nino always called as “the magnet”.  
  
They reach the end of the hallway and that’s when Jun finally lets the man go. He fixes his coat and stares at the man pointedly, silently wishing that the next time he blinks this unwanted stranger will finally be gone.  
  
The man fixes his tie before looking at Jun. “I’m really sorry for any trouble that I have caused,” he says in a seemingly sincere manner. He bows in apology once more, and when he looks back up, Jun sees that his cheeks are somehow reddening. Embarrassment or exertion, Jun doesn’t know, but he has an inkling it might be both.  
  
Now that Jun has a look on his face, the stranger can be possibly good-looking, and Jun finds himself wondering how the man would look like had they met in another situation.  
  
“Please excuse me,” the man says with finality, and he turns away from Jun before walking briskly towards the hallway. It’s only then that Jun finally lets out a sigh of relief. He suddenly remembers that he has an obligation as Shun’s best man and he hurriedly glances at his wristwatch, his feet already moving.  
  
He curses when he sees that he has less than a minute left, and he quickly rushes inside. He pushes all thoughts regarding the stranger from earlier out of his mind, knowing he’ll need his focus and concentration to be Jun the best man and not Jun the wedding organizer. It takes a lot of effort on his part, but when Jun stands in front of the microphone to deliver his prepared speech, he flashes Shun and Yuu a reassuring smile as he reads on.  
  
Later, when the reception’s all wrapped up and he and his staff are doing last-minute packing, he remembers the stranger from earlier and thinks that Nino’s probably going to love to hear this particular story when he shows up tomorrow for work.  
  
Jun makes a mental note that he will leave out the aftershave bit if he shares the story to Nino, and the fact that he found himself admitting that the wedding crasher was perhaps quite appealing to his eyes despite the circumstances. Nino will probably have a field day in his expense if he mentions that, claiming that Jun might have found someone who might just be the one. Nino tends to say things like that whenever Jun makes the mistake of sharing more than he ought to because Nino claims that working as a wedding organizer made him believe in the idea of romance, and that Jun should believe in it too, preferably anytime soon.  
  
Jun doesn’t agree with Nino’s personal assessment of his chances at finding someone, but Nino never listens to any form of reasoning he may have prepared so Jun stopped bothering to explain his side a long time ago. It’s not like he’s looking, anyway. He still wants to go to Hawaii someday and hopefully with someone, but he figures Hawaii won’t disappear so it can certainly wait.  
  
Still, even hours later, Jun finds himself wondering if the stranger from earlier did manage to get to the right wedding even if that’s no longer his business. A greater part of Jun is mostly relieved though, because he knows he will never see the guy again.


	2. Chapter 2

It is Monday and Sho is, thankfully, not running late.  
  
He made it just in time for his usual train ride to work, and on the way he makes sure to review the presentation for later in his head. Being marketing chief entails a lot of responsibility and Sho knows he has to make a good impression to the higher ups since he is, technically, the marketing department representative. He has to ace this, not only for him but also for his colleagues.  
  
After the long day he had yesterday, Sho thinks he cannot afford any more misses now. Yesterday, Sora and Ran looked very much relieved and pleased to see him, and while they did brush off Sho’s apologies, he still took it in him to apologize over and over again to the newlyweds. Sure, he did manage to make it to the right reception, but he still hates the fact that he had to do a trial and error first. He also hates the fact that the first person he ever felt immediate attraction to is also the same person who looked three seconds away from setting him on fire.  
  
Sho didn’t even get the man’s name. All he got to know from that brief but entirely unforgettable encounter is that the man is a wedding planner at a shop called One Love and that they will never see each other again. The possibilities of a chance encounter are too low, and Sho doesn’t have to be a genius to figure that out.  
  
He’ll never forget the way that man smiled at him and glared at him the same time. He was definitely less than a second away from screaming at Sho’s face and Sho kind of hates himself for wondering how the guy will sound like if he screams from… well, something else not related to Sho screwing up royally, preferably.  
  
He pinches the bridge of his nose and takes a deep breath. He still feels guilty about crashing the wrong wedding, and he didn’t exactly act in an acceptable manner either. Sure, the attractive stranger wasn’t exactly a paragon of manners, but Sho himself wasn’t any different and he knows that. He feels that his apology was inadequate and he makes a mental note to look up One Love on the internet later when he gets back home.  
  
He sighs, squaring his shoulders and putting a game face on. For now, he has a presentation to ace, and ace it he will.  
  
\--  
  
It is Monday and the first thing that greets Jun is Nino’s happy smile when he enters the shop.  
  
“Good morning, Jun-kun!” Nino says energetically, his face plopped in his hands as he rests his elbows on the counter. “How did yesterday go?”  
  
Jun gave the staff he worked with yesterday a day off, so it’s just him and Nino who are supposed to be at the shop today. The rest of their staff, the ones who didn’t get to work on yesterday’s event, are definitely working on something else so they’re out inspecting possible venues, checking out various materials and examining their quality, or whatever it was Jun or Nino assigned for them to do.  
  
Jun removes his scarf a little forcefully before setting it on his desk. He cracks his neck joints, hoping it’ll help him wake up faster. Dealing with Nino requires a lot of attention and patience, and since Jun is not a morning person, those two tend to elude him during this hour.  
  
“Fine,” he says, refusing to elaborate. He takes a seat on his desk chair and slouches, his eyes already drifting shut. He always needed more sleep after a wedding and that’s something he never got.  
  
He hears Nino’s fingers tapping against the counter’s surface. “Eight years of working together, Jun-kun,” Nino says, making Jun open an eye to look at him. Nino flashes him a sweet smile before continuing. “I have eight years of experience to know that your reply of ‘fine’ definitely means something didn’t go according to plan.”  
  
He shoots Nino a look. He knows Nino won’t give up, and lest Nino try to extract information from Mao or anybody else who was there, he figures he might as well tell Nino everything.  
  
He sighs, running his hands down his face. “I got this wedding crasher yesterday.”  
  
He hears Nino’s sharp intake of breath, a mock gesture of shock. Nino only does that when what Jun’s telling him clearly amused him, and Jun hates him for that.  
  
“And? What did he look like?” Nino asks, and Jun doesn’t have to look at him to know that he’s grinning. The little shit. Jun wonders how he survived being friends with Nino. It sure toughened him up for a lot of things because no one’s capable of bullshit as much as Nino is, but sometimes Jun just wonders how come his life is like this.  
  
For instance, his childhood friend slash business partner is asking about the things he vowed never to speak of because Nino knows him that much. He hates that Nino knows there’s something up because of the way he phrased what he just said. Jun wants to hit himself for that miss. If he phrased it a little differently, if he said something like “I got a wedding crasher,” instead of what he said earlier, Nino wouldn’t be asking that question.  
  
He shoots Nino a look. “Does it really matter how he looked like? He almost ruined everything.”  
  
Nino grins, the kind of grin he does whenever he has a bar to add to the scoresheet in the backroom. “That’s two misses there, Jun-kun. You’re out of sorts today.” When Jun frowns in confusion, Nino just keeps the smile on his face. “One,” Nino elaborates, his thumb raised for effect, “you just acknowledged I was right that it was a he, and two,” this time Nino raises his eyebrows along with another finger, “you said almost, so he didn’t really destroy it in the end, did he?”  
  
Jun wants to wrap his scarf around Nino’s neck and strangle the man with it, nevermind their friendship, nevermind their good working relationship. Nino’s too sharp and like always, Jun’s not too awake for this. He resolves not to dignify NIno with any form of reply and crosses his arms over his chest instead.  
  
Nino just laughs, and Jun swears that he hates Nino right now. “Come on now, Jun-kun. Tell me how it went. How did he look like? Because I’m pretty sure you gave him your most polite speech the moment he walked through the doors, and seeing as I wasn’t there, I can only imagine the look on the poor, traumatized man’s face.”  
  
Jun shuts his eyes and exhales pointedly when the first thing he remembers is the stranger’s blushing cheeks and embarrassed face. Now that his anger has slightly abated, he finds himself thinking it was something cute, the sight of the man’s flushing face from yesterday. He shakes his head to get rid of the thought.  
  
“Fine, I’ll tell you,” he says, and he sees Nino smiling and leaning forward, a little too eagerly that Jun swears he hates Nino a lot. He vows never to mention how the stranger looked like and will focus on the parts wherein the man nearly screwed up everything he worked so hard for in the past few months. Surely Nino can sympathize with that, being a wedding planner himself.  
  
“I’ll tell you Nino, I’ll tell you everything about this asshole,” he says, finally smiling, and Nino laughs at the moniker, like he didn’t expect anything else. Jun supposes that that’s a given considering Nino has known him for nearly all of their lives.  
  
Jun still hates the stranger, and now, as he tells Nino every single detail about how it went, he finds himself immensely thankful that the chances of him meeting the guy again are very low, even close to zero.  
  
\--  
  
It takes a full week till Sho gets a day off, and the first thing he does is to head to this patisserie in Meguro to purchase a box set of savarin au rhum. Ohno, the patissier on duty and someone Sho has become friends with given his frequency of visit during his rest days, wraps the sweets in precise movements and hands the box to him with a genial smile.  
  
“Do you need something else?” Ohno asks him, and Sho shakes his head. Sho tends to come to this shop to eat Clafoutis aux cerises, so it’s only natural that Ohno asks him. Ohno always asks. That’s what Sho likes about him. He never presumes anything despite Sho almost always ordering the same thing.  
  
Ohno gives him a nod and a smile before bowing gratefully, thanking him for his purchase. Sho didn’t exactly pick the cheapest thing in the store, so he supposes Ohno is thanking him for the rather expensive purchase at so early in the morning. Sho nods in acknowledgement and he leaves the shop, hurriedly getting on his car and setting the box on the passenger’s seat.  
  
It takes him less than thirty minutes to reach Chiyoda, and less than ten minutes to find One Love’s address as stated in its website. Sho visited the site the moment after he aced his presentation on behalf of the entire marketing department, and he has to admit that whoever designed the webpage knew the golden rule of ‘less is more’ in designing. The homepage didn’t have any fancy songs autoplaying, and its layout wasn’t something that required squinting. All in all, it looked like the webpage of a trustworthy wedding planning shop, and Sho supposes that was the goal of whoever designed it.  
  
He parks his car across the street and checks his watch. According to the website, they operate from eight in the morning until six in the early evening. It’s a little over eight, and Sho turns to observe the shop from his car. He squints a little when he sees a man inside, trying to see if it’s the attractive stranger who wanted to skewer him two-something weeks ago.  
  
The sunlight reflected on the shop’s glass windows makes it harder to see who the person inside the shop is, and Sho turns his engine off and removes his seatbelt, deciding he’s only prolonging his agony so he might as well get a move on if he wishes to accomplish something. He’s here to apologize, and the sooner he can do it, the better.  
  
He hears chimes ringing when he pushes the glass doors open, and a man who looks younger than him looks up from the counter before smiling. It’s not the stranger Sho met under unfortunate circumstances and he doesn’t know whether to be relieved or to be sad about that.  
  
The man from the counter looks at the box he’s holding in his right hand and Sho steps forward, setting it on the counter. The man smiles before offering a hand.  
  
“Ninomiya Kazunari,” the man introduces himself, and Sho takes his hand and gives a firm shake. Sho offers his own name in goodwill and Ninomiya nods.  
  
“Nino,” Ninomiya says, and Sho is a little taken aback at the familiarity in the tone of Ninomiya’s voice, but he seems sincere. Ninomiya smiles at him. “You can call me Nino, but I don’t think you’re here for that.”  
  
Ninomiya, or Nino, now that the man casually offered his nickname as if he has known Sho for a long time, gives Sho a once over with a knowing smile on his face. “Sakurai-san,” Ninomiya says, fixing him a look with his lips quirking, “pardon my boldness, but are you here for him?”  
  
Sho frowns in confusion before he manages to utter a “What?”  
  
Ninomiya shoots a pointed look at the box containing the savarin au rhum. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to explain. Everybody who comes in bringing something like this is either here to thank me or him, and seeing as we just met today, I suppose it’s him you’re here to thank?”  
  
Sho doesn’t exactly know who’s the ‘him’ Ninomiya is referring to, but he has a feeling he knows deep inside. He thinks he knows and he clears his throat, trying his best to regain his composure.  
  
“I’m not here to thank anyone, I’m here to apologize.”  
  
Ninomiya’s eyes widen at that, then he’s smiling at Sho with the happiness reaching his eyes. “Ah,” Ninomiya says, pointing a finger at him, “You’re him.” The man is still grinning like he won the lottery, and Sho frowns. The way Ninomiya said it sounded like he knew Sho and Sho, try as he might, can’t think of a way that should be possible.  
  
Unless the stranger he wants to apologize to actually talked about him and the idea of it is so mortifying that Sho feels his throat going dry. He was really hated at that time, wasn’t he? Hated enough to be worth telling to somebody else?  
  
“I’m the what?” he still asks, hoping he’s wrong with his assumptions, and Ninomiya laughs.  
  
“You’re him. The one he lovingly called ‘the asshole’. Oh, you’re him!” Ninomiya says, and now he’s laughing for real, his rather small hand covering his mouth, and Sho stands there awkwardly, not knowing what else to do.  
  
‘The asshole’. So that’s how the attractive stranger referred to him? What an impression he left. Sho is now thinking that coming here was a wrong decision on his part. The stranger obviously hated him so much that he told his co-worker about their unfortunate meeting, using a moniker that said co-worker tells him he lovingly attached to Sho to make up for their lack of information regarding each other.  
  
Not that said stranger seemed keen to know his name as much as Sho was towards the man, because if Sho remembers correctly, the man looked less than a few seconds away to scream at his face and curse him for all eternity.  
  
Ninomiya seemingly recovers, wiping the corner of his eye with a finger. He obviously teared up from laughing too much. About what exactly, Sho doesn’t know, but he no longer thinks it’s part of his business so he squares his shoulders.  
  
“Ninomiya-san,” he begins, and the man’s eyes focus on him, “I think you know who I’m talking about. I don’t have his name, but I’m here to apologize for what happened two weeks ago because I still feel awful about it.”  
  
Sho takes a deep breath. “Is he here?”  
  
Ninomiya grins with very amused eyes and Sho watches as Ninomiya lifts a finger to point behind Sho, at the entrance of the shop. Sho turns, nervous energy sitting in his gut, and he sees the stranger from weeks ago, the same man with well-defined and large features shivering from the cold outside.  
  
The man enters the shop a little hurriedly, wiping the soles of his boots on the mat as he says, “Sorry for being late, Nino, I forgot my train ticket and—”  
  
He pauses when he looks up, and Sho sees the same brown eyes immediately narrowing in combined recognition and hatred. “You,” the man says, his voice a little disbelieving.  
  
Sho opens his mouth to introduce himself and immediately apologize, but Ninomiya behind him beats him to it. “This is Sakurai Sho, Jun-kun,” Ninomiya says with a smile, and Sho catches on to the name. Jun. For some reason it felt good to finally be able to attach a name to the face. To the really gorgeous face Sho has been thinking about from time to time. “I thought I’d get his name for you because you obviously didn’t get to do that the last time you met.”  
  
Ninomiya moves away from the counter and puts an arm around the stranger Sho now knows to be named Jun. “This,” Ninomiya says, gesturing to the man he has an arm around with a tilt of his head, “is Matsumoto Jun. He’s currently available if you’re looking for a wedding planner, but if you’re not, well, I think he’s available for that sort of thing too.”  
  
Sho now desperately wishes he’s not misinterpreting any of Ninomiya’s words. Now that he has the wedding planner’s full name, he can cease referring to him as ‘the really attractive guy who hates me’ in his head. Matsumoto Jun. Sho’s brain continues repeating the name over and over again, trying its best to get used to it now that he has a full name to associate with the face.  
  
The seriously handsome face that’s now glaring daggers at him.  
  
Matsumoto pushes Ninomiya away with a light shove. “You stay out of this, Nino,” he says warningly, and Ninomiya raises his hands in mock surrender.  
  
Matsumoto turns to him, his arms crossed over his chest. He looks intimidating, but Sho wills himself to remain in place. “Why are you here?” Matsumoto asks, an eyebrow raised. “Sakurai-san,” he adds an afterthought, and Sho finds that he likes the way his surname sounds from Matsumoto’s full lips despite the way he said it.  
  
Sho’s beginning to think that he has it bad.  
  
“I still feel awful about what happened,” Sho tries, and Matsumoto just keeps the eyebrow up. Sho turns to retrieve the box he placed on top of the counter he’s currently leaning on for support. He offers it to Matsumoto, who frowns at the sight of it. “I’m here to say that I’m really sorry for what I did and for all the rude things I said.”  
  
Matsumoto licks his lips, and Sho has to look away because now that he has the guy’s name, the level of attraction he felt weeks ago begins to increase exponentially, and he honestly feels quite alarmed. He’s aware that Ninomiya is watching the whole thing, and Sho’s a little thankful for the other man’s presence because at least, if Matsumoto tells him to get out, he’ll probably do it in a calm tone given that they’re in the presence of a co-worker.  
  
Something tells Sho that Matsumoto is the type who considers the environment around him before acting on a decision. After all, Matsumoto did not scream at him on that day despite looking three seconds away from doing so.  
  
Matsumoto looks at the box in Sho’s hands before looking back at Sho’s face. “And you think some fancy cake is going to fix things?” Matsumoto tilts his head, an eyebrow quirked. “You crashed my best friend’s wedding, Sakurai-san.”  
  
Like Sho needs further reminding. Sho shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath, trying his best to weigh his options and choose his next move carefully. He knows if he says the wrong thing it will defeat the purpose of coming here, and he’s here to apologize because he still feels bad even weeks later.  
  
“I said I’m sorry,” Sho says, taking a step forward to offer Matsumoto the box again. The way Sho sees it, there are a number of possibilities. Matsumoto may not accept the apology and the savarin au rhum, or he may accept both. He may also accept only one of the two, and Sho doesn’t know what to do when that happens.  
  
Matsumoto eyes the box like all the evils of the world will come out of it. “No,” he tells Sho flatly, and Sho’s shoulders slump in defeat. He expected that, he really did, but hearing Matsumoto downright rejecting his apology and his peace offering, it was still something else. He knows Matsumoto can see the hurt on his face.  
  
Still, Sho persists. “Just take it. Even if you don’t forgive me for my honest mistake, at least take this.” He makes sure to emphasize the word ‘honest’ and he knows he didn’t imagine Ninomiya snickering in the corner of his eye.  
  
Matsumoto squares his shoulders and narrows his eyes at Sho. “No, thank you, Sakurai-san,” he says, and he smiles at Sho like something very amusing just happened. Sho knows that if that’s the case, he’s clearly missing out on the joke, and he simply stares at Matsumoto in an odd mixture of disbelief, defeat, and unrelenting attraction, because Matsumoto is still smiling.  
  
It’s not the affectionate sort of smile, no. If Sho is to put a name to it he’ll even say it’s a little mocking in nature, but since he’s really hopeless, it only makes him become more drawn to Matsumoto.  
  
Ninomiya suddenly steps forward and takes the box from his hands. “Leave it here, Sho-chan,” he says, flashing Sho a friendly smile, not like the knowing ones he made earlier. Sho is surprised at the very casual use of his name and the familiarity of it, but Ninomiya merely continues, “I’m hungry anyway.”  
  
Ninomiya leaves them, taking the box of savarin au rhum with him to the backroom, and Sho turns to Matsumoto who still looks at him like he can’t believe Sho’s here. Sho lets the silence stretch for five seconds before considering his business done and making a polite bow and excusing himself. He knows he cannot take one more second of being under Matsumoto’s scrutiny, so he leaves the shop rather hurriedly, getting into his car as fast as his feet can take him.  
  
Safely inside his SUV, he finally lets out a sigh. His trip to One Love did not go as expected, but Sho can now claim that he did what he could. He’s still hurt about Matsumoto’s flat out “No” and Sho thinks he can never forget the tone of voice Matsumoto used on him.  
  
He also knows he can never forget the look on Matsumoto’s face when he first saw Sho, as well as Matsumoto’s smile, despite his obvious disdain for Sho.  
  
Well, at least now Sho has the guy’s name.  
  
\--  
  
As soon as Sakurai was out of the shop, Jun storms into the backroom in search of Nino.  
  
Nino, who’s now digging into whatever fancy pastry Sakurai bought with a blissful look on his little impish face. He turns to Jun with an expectant smile and gives a thumbs up.  
  
“This is just delicious, Jun-kun,” Nino says, wiping his mouth with a finger when a bit of icing gets to the corner of his lips. “Really, really good. You should try them. He bought four.”  
  
Nino’s not usually a fan of fancy desserts and Jun knows Nino is doing this right now just to spite him, because Nino clearly enjoyed the show earlier. He angrily tugs at his scarf to remove it before shrugging off his coat and hanging it inside his locker.  
  
“It’s savarin au rhum, Jun-kun,” Nino says behind him, offering him a spoonful. Given the nature of the job, Nino is as knowledgeable as he is when it comes to pastries. Jun did take a good look at the box, and the shop name is one of those shops One Love has collaborated with when their clients expect the best desserts. Freestyle in Meguro serves a variety of French pastries, but Jun remembers the taste of their bavarois from a wedding four months ago and those tasted exquisite.  
  
Jun can only assume whatever Sakurai bought tastes the same, and though loathe is he to give in, he leans over to accept the spoonful Nino’s offering to him.  
  
Nino’s grinning at him expectantly, and Jun has to school his features to hide how elegant and satisfying he found its rich taste to be. Sakurai bought four of these things as a form of an apology, and Jun swears Nino can only have one and that’s the one he’s eating now.  
  
He grabs the box to shove it inside the small fridge they have in the backroom and turns to Nino. “I’m taking that home,” he says, staking his claim over the pastry. It is delicious, it tasted divine and not even Jun’s hate for Sakurai can make him deny that. As a wedding planner it’s a requirement that he remains honest and objective regarding the quality of the food served before him, and he thinks it’s unfair if he doesn’t give Sakurai any credit despite Sakurai’s unforgivable trespass from two weeks ago.  
  
Jun cannot deny it, Sakurai has taste.  
  
Nino raises an eyebrow at him, spoon still in his mouth. He pulls the utensil out to say, “You didn’t accept it, Jun-kun, I did,” and Jun’s eyes narrow in challenge. That’s true, he did refuse Sakurai’s peace offering because his pride won’t allow him to take any form of bribe from the man who crashed Shun’s wedding.  
  
But technically, Sakurai bought the savarin au rhum for him, so he totally has a claim over the thing.  
  
He tells Nino as much, and Nino just laughs. He points the spoon at Jun. “Admit it, Jun-kun, you’re surprised that he came, but you’re actually surprised in a good way.”  
  
Jun will never admit out loud that Nino is right so he refuses to look at Nino and heads for the door. They have a shop to watch, they have business matters to attend to. Nino might be right, but Jun will never admit that he was pleasantly surprised by Sakurai’s presence here at One Love, and he will never, ever admit to Nino that he was immensely pleased at seeing Sakurai in different clothing.  
  
In a peacoat with slightly disheveled hair and a nose reddening from the cold outside, Sakurai was definitely more than good-looking. Jun didn’t get the chance to appreciate the man’s face the first time they met given the nature of that meeting, and he will never admit it but he did find himself wondering how Sakurai looks like when he smiles. Especially after today. They never really met in an agreeable manner and today is no exception. Jun finds himself wishing he met Sakurai under entirely different circumstances because perhaps things will be different if that had been the case.  
  
Then again, he thinks as he sits on his desk, already powering up his laptop, he still got three savarin au rhum from Freestyle waiting for him in the fridge, so maybe he and Sakurai didn’t meet in entirely unfortunate scenarios.  
  
Jun still doesn’t forgive him though, no matter how delicious his fancy cakes turned out to be.  
  
\--  
  
When Sho gets back to his desk come Monday, his co-worker Aiba Masaki is sitting on his table with a huge smile on his face.  
  
Aiba is a colleague and a friend, one of Sho’s first friends when he started out as a junior associate in the marketing department. Aiba is in human resources, a department located at the opposite wing of the building, but Aiba still visits him from time to time.  
  
From the way Aiba is smiling, Sho has an inkling what he’s going to say.  
  
“Sho-chan!” Aiba greets him excitedly, standing up from where he was sitting (which was on the surface of Sho’s desk) and fishing out a rather colorful piece of parchment from one of his suit pockets. Sho’s eyes widen when Aiba hands it to him, and he meets Aiba’s cheerful grin.  
  
“Becky has finally settled on a date!” Aiba informs him, clapping him on the shoulder and still giving him the blinding grin Aiba undoubtedly perfected all these years as part of human resources. Sho accepts the invitation gratefully, and immediately opens the envelope to check the date.  
  
A month from now and Aiba will be a married man. Sho smiles, giving Aiba a brief hug. “I’m happy for you, Aiba-chan. Took a while for you to get there, after all,” he says, and Aiba nods in agreement.  
  
“Right? How many times did Becky refuse my engagement ring because she claimed I picked the wrong cut? How many times did she put off planning for our wedding because she claimed it can wait?” Aiba looks a little nostalgic, then he grins at Sho. “And now it’s finally happening! She won’t let me see her in her gown, though.”  
  
Sho laughs. He can just imagine how adamant Becky was about the wedding planning. It’s very unlikely that Aiba had any say aside from the guest list. Sho figures Becky coordinated with a wedding planner and handled everything in her own terms. He has met Becky, after all. She is charming, has a smile that is as charming as Aiba’s, and Sho thinks they’re perfect for each other. Becky is firm, she knows what she wants and doesn’t hesitate to ask for it. Sho has a lot of respect for her because of her dedication, her kindness combined with a bit of stubbornness.  
  
Sho was there the moment Aiba and Becky met. He and Aiba were relaxing in a café three blocks from their workplace, and Becky happened to be the barista on duty. Sho doesn’t know when exactly did they hit it off, but a day just came when Aiba proudly informed him that he finally got “the pretty barista who hates my guts” agree to a date. Sho supposes that’s genuine Aiba Masaki charm in the works that made such a thing possible.  
  
Years later, Aiba proposed, and it took two years of engagement for Becky to finally relent, or so Aiba tells him.  
  
“How did you get her to finally go with it?” he asks Aiba. Aiba just looks triumphant as he makes himself comfortable on Sho’s office desk.  
  
“She made me promise not to interfere with the planning unless she asked for it,” Aiba says simply, and Sho laughs again. Figures. He thought right. Becky will never let Aiba pick any of the designs, the souvenirs, most especially the theme.  
  
“You know what, Sho-chan?” Aiba asks, and Sho looks at him expectantly. “I only met our wedding planner thrice. That’s it. Isn’t that strange? That the guy who plans for my wedding knows more about my own wedding, when I’m the one getting married?”  
  
Sho can feel the tip of his ears burning at the mention of ‘wedding planner’, and he hurriedly scans the invitation for any information regarding the wedding planning shop. Aiba seems to sense what he’s looking for, because the next thing Aiba says to him is “It’s at the back, a shop in Chiyoda.”  
  
Sho looks at Aiba with wide eyes, his hands freezing. Aiba merely tilts his head in question, and Sho knows he’s only delaying the inevitable so he flips the invitation card to check the back. He thinks what he’s feeling right now is close to a heart attack when he reads the shop name.  
  
Of all wedding planning shops to handle Aiba and Becky’s wedding. God must really him if god exists, and Sho wonders why is this all happening to him. It hasn’t even been a week since he visited One Love and Matsumoto downright rejected his apology and his box of what Matsumoto called “fancy cake”. It hasn’t been a week and in a month, the likelihood of Sho meeting Matsumoto again has exponentially increased.  
  
Not that Sho’s not looking forward to meet Matsumoto again, because that would be a lie. If anything, his trip to One Love the other day just confirmed his attraction towards Matsumoto. Ninomiya’s implications didn’t do much for Sho either because he finds himself wanting to drive by the shop even if he’s not getting hitched anytime soon.  
  
And yet, despite all his attraction towards the stoic wedding planner, he can’t find it in him to refer to Matsumoto by his given name. Sho heard how Ninomiya called him, of course. Then again, Ninomiya seemed friendly with everyone, he even called Sho as “Sho-chan” after exchanging only a few words.  
  
Sho supposes if he ever, ever attempts to call Matsumoto by his given name, the guy might really set him on fire. He looked unyielding and incredibly intimidating and Sho wants to congratulate himself from not dissolving on the spot. The glare Matsumoto gave him spoke volumes.  
  
Needless to say, Matsumoto undoubtedly hates his guts probably more than Becky ever felt towards Aiba many years ago, and it doesn’t take much to figure that out. Matsumoto won’t share his enthusiasm for a third meeting, definitely.  
  
“Say,” he begins, his voice small, “what’s the name of your wedding planner?”  
  
Aiba said he met the guy thrice. Knowing Aiba, he probably made friends with whoever plans his wedding at first meet. Aiba does that. He claimed he was Sho’s friend even after meeting only at the elevator ride on Sho’s first day. That attitude of his is perfect for human resources because it makes Aiba the kind of co-worker you’d go to if you have a problem, the kind of guy you’d love to get as your interviewer if you’re trying to land a job.  
  
Aiba blinks at him before smiling wide. “You’re going to love him, Sho-chan. He has the kind of face that will make you stop and look because it’s so distinct and so strong, totally noticeable! I told him so at first meet and he raised an eyebrow at me. He looked terrifying and intimidating.”  
  
Sho thinks he may have stopped breathing. “Aiba-chan,” he says slowly, carefully, “what’s the guy’s name?”  
  
He’s praying to whatever deity out there that might be listening that the name which falls from Aiba’s lips any moment now is going to begin with a letter N, even if it sounds impossible considering Aiba’s description. Ninomiya definitely doesn’t possess a face Aiba can only describe as strong.  
  
Aiba grins. “I call him Matsujun,” he says to Sho, like it’s the most natural nickname for someone like Matsumoto. Sho shuts his eyes in defeat. Of course it’s him. Of course. God hates Sho a lot, after all.  
  
Sho wonders now how Matsumoto took in that portmanteau. But maybe it’s something he gets frequently? Sho thinks only a few people will dare to call Matsumoto by his given name, and between the portmanteau and the chance of getting an eyebrow and a glare, Sho will pick the portmanteau too if he wants to address the guy.  
  
That is, if he ever addresses the guy. Sho knows that the moment he shows up for Aiba and Becky’s wedding (which is a month from now), he’ll be tongue-tied at the sight of Matsumoto.  
  
One, because the guy is seriously attractive, and two, because the guy clearly hates him and will probably ask him, “What are you doing here?” before he can even get to open his mouth. Sho knows there’s a high possibility of Matsumoto accusing him of crashing another wedding when they see each other again, and there’s a high possibility of him going into lengths to explain himself.  
  
That is, if Matsumoto ever lets him explain.  
  
He didn’t even accept Sho’s apology and offering of savarin au rhum from Freestyle. It was only because of Ninomiya that Sho’s effort didn’t truly go to waste. Sho knows that if Ninomiya wasn’t there at that time, he probably wouldn’t even get to say that he was sorry before Matsumoto ushered him outside. The guy hates him; obviously he still holds a grudge over Sho’s miss that day, and no matter how much of an honest mistake that was, Sho can tell that Matsumoto will never relent.  
  
“Sho-chan?” Aiba asks, peering at him a little. Sho blinks himself back to reality, and he flashes Aiba what he hopes is a reassuring smile.  
  
“I’ll be there, Aiba-chan,” he says, and Aiba claps him hard on the shoulder, his smile so genuine and so friendly that Sho feels slightly better despite his worries already piling up as early as now.  
  
“Becky will be happy to hear that!” Aiba assures him, before glancing at his watch. “I have to go, Sho-chan. Bunch of new recruits to train!” Aiba makes his way towards the door, giving Sho a little wave which Sho returns.  
  
“Oh!” Aiba seems to remember something, his head peeking out of the door, and Sho tilts his head in question. “Don’t forget to RSVP, Sho-chan,” Aiba reminds him before attempting a wink, and Sho laughs before nodding.  
  
As Sho slumps in his office chair, he remembers that this is only the second wedding he has to attend for this year, and he’s sure there’s another one upcoming anytime soon. Everybody around him seemed keen to marry, and Sho feels a little left out, but it’s not like he has anyone. Ran-chan remarked that he was married to his job when Sho finally made it in the right reception, and Sho’s beginning to think she might be right.  
  
After all, he did not become a marketing chief at twenty-nine by just having a convincing smile. Aiba told him countless times that he has a smile that will be helpful in the human resources department, but dealing with people isn’t exactly Sho’s forte. He’s good with making strategies and implementing them, so that’s what he sticks with. He understands balance and the idea that every relationship existing in the corporate world is symbiotic in nature. He uses this knowledge to his advantage, coming up with inventive ideas that can benefit the company whenever necessary.  
  
Simply put, Sho is good at his job. He is thirty-three now, and his life is exactly as he envisioned it to be. A single man who performs excellently at his job. He does get a lot of side-eyes and questions regarding marriage, especially now that everybody around him is getting married, but he’s happy where he is and what he’s doing.  
  
If he’s stressed lately, it’s not job-related. He may be married to his job, but he actually enjoys what he’s doing and he thinks that’s a blessing because not a lot of people can say that when they’re working for a company. He feels fortunate that he can make that claim and mean it wholeheartedly.  
  
Which is why he doesn’t understand what’s so awful about being dedicated to what you do for a living, though he supposes it’s a common observation when your peers are beginning to settle down and you’re still single and very much available despite being in your early thirties.  
  
He sighs, shuffling the papers in his desk. If he’s married to work then so be it. He makes a reminder on his phone to withdraw some banknotes at least a week before Aiba and Becky’s wedding, and he shuts his eyes. Sho is happy for his friend. He’s very happy for Aiba because Aiba’s finally settling down after so many years of trying and going back and forth. Sho may not have seen it all happen, but he has seen enough. Aiba and Becky had to go through a lot to get to where they are now, and Sho’s happy for the both of them.  
  
He just wishes he can say the same for himself. He wishes he can say he’s happy and has every intention of settling down, but that’s impossible because he’s a bachelor for how many years now and, well, Sho never really had any luck considering his preferences.  
  
He’s had a few relationships here and there, but none of which lasted long enough for him to even consider a what if. So he has given up a long time ago. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, then Sho’s honestly okay with that too. He’s not really looking for anyone in particular.  
  
That is, until Sora and Ran’s wedding, which led him to where he is at the moment: in a predicament shaped as an angry wedding organizer. An incredibly alluring organizer at that, but Sho knows he has zero chances if the other party loathes his entire existence. It’s just not possible and Sho knows a lost cause when he sees one.  
  
Still, a part of him is wondering, what if he and Matsumoto met under different circumstances? He wonders if things will be the same, if one still ends up hating every fiber of the other’s being. He wonders if he has a chance had things happened differently, if he could’ve seen Matsumoto smile had that been the case, instead of the guy’s frown and raised eyebrows and glares, the usual Matsumoto package Sho gets.  
  
Had he met Matsumoto under a normal scenario, would he ever have a shot, a chance to pursue something with someone he felt immediately attracted to?  
  
\--  
  
Becky is delightful.  
  
She has a contagious laugh and a keen eye for detail, and Jun respects her so much for her attentiveness and thoroughness. They work efficiently together, and Becky never fails to do a rundown with what they have so far before the day ends. Jun didn’t have any form of disagreement with her, for Becky respects his input and weighs her options very well. She listens to Jun and pays utmost attention to what he has to say, and just like that, Jun is charmed.  
  
He just wishes he can say the same for Becky’s bridesmaids.  
  
He pinches the bridge of his nose when one of Becky’s bridesmaids, a woman named Mariko, insisted that she asked for a butterfly ornament instead of a flower one. Jun has checked his list over and over again, and he input the details and preferences himself so he’s certain he didn’t make a mistake regarding anything. And yet, this Mariko claims she asked for something different from what she said a month and a half ago, and Jun’s patience is rapidly disappearing.  
  
He’s about to open his mouth and address the situation when he feels Nino pinching the side of his arm, the other man already stepping forward. Jun doesn’t know whether to thank Nino for this save or not because a part of him is grateful he won’t scare any of their client’s friends away, while another part of him is disappointed he won’t get to prove that it’s not him who made a mistake.  
  
“I’ll take care of this, Jun-kun,” Nino says, already grabbing the tablet from him and quickly scanning the bridal entourage details. “I think Mao-chan and Becky-san need your input regarding the flower choices?”  
  
Jun nods at Nino gratefully, mouthing a “thanks” before heading out to the backroom. He breathes a sigh of relief once he’s hidden from view, and he hears Mao’s giggle from the corner of the room.  
  
“I was wondering how long you’ll last out there,” she tells him, and Jun shoots her an accusatory glare. Becky will arrive by noon and that’s thirty minutes from now, so it’s only him and Mao in the backroom at the moment.  
  
The way Mao said that though, it’s as if everything is a game between his co-workers. Now that Jun gives it a thought, that might really be the case here.  
  
Game number one is all about how many people who came inside One Love ended up asking Matsumoto Jun out. That one has a scoresheet pinned to the bulletin board, currently with a tally of six ever since the year began, and they only had two weddings so far, this one being their third. How many minutes will Matsumoto Jun last before giving the death glare is game number two. That one has no scoresheet, but everybody makes a wager on the minutes and Nino lists them down sometimes because Nino claims that “it’s fun and helps liven up the atmosphere of the workplace”. And finally, game number three is on how many people will get the glare from Matsumoto Jun before anyone steps in. That one has a personal tally in Nino’s head, and Jun’s certain of it because it’s almost always Nino who steps forward to save the day.  
  
He’s aware of the names because it’s Nino who comes up with such things and Nino naturally tells him about it as if he’s not the subject of the whole thing. Nino shows his friendship and appreciation like that.  
  
Nino also started a new contest for the entire staff of One Love, something he did the moment Sakurai left the shop. Nino even attached another scoresheet of sorts, a tiny yellow post-it pinned beside game number one's sheet, labeled ‘the number of times someone took the effort for Jun-kun’.  
  
Needless to say, that one has only one bar, something Nino wrote with a smile on his face. Jun is not allowed to take the thing down because Nino accused him of hogging all the savarin au rhum and that the scoresheet is just payback for Jun’s selfishness.  
  
Jun hates that yellow post-it because it reminds him so much of Sakurai and his fancy cakes which truly tasted divine. He hates that small piece of yellow paper because of the way it stands out in the bulletin board, how it reminds him of Sakurai and his earnest eyes and his cute button nose and his plump bottom lip and—  
  
“Jun-kun?” Mao says, and Jun turns to her quickly in an attempt to mask whatever he’s thinking. Mao has known him since high school. Jun doesn’t know what goes through that mind of hers but all these years of working with Nino undoubtedly made her pick up a thing or two from Jun’s childhood friend, on how to predict Jun’s mood and how to handle it.  
  
“You were saying?” he asks, trying his best to make his voice sound even and removing any thought of Sakurai in his head. It’s not working because he can still see the yellow post-it from the corner of his eye and he deliberately turns away from the bulletin board.  
  
Mao laughs, her giggles hidden by one of her hands. “I said, you’ve been glaring at the bulletin board like it’s the source of all your problems,” she says, then her expression shifts and she turns to the board for a moment before turning back to Jun.  
  
Jun doesn’t like the way that she’s smiling and he’s sure he’s not going to like what she’s about to say.  
  
Mao keeps that innocent smile on her face, the one that Nino is no doubt the mentor of. “Or shall I revise it, Jun-kun? Rather than saying ‘it’ is the source of all your problems, shall I say ‘he’ instead of ‘it’? I heard from Nino that—”  
  
“You heard what from Nino?” he cuts her off, his voice hard as steel. Nino probably told everyone about Sakurai and the nature of the new colored scoresheet on the bulletin board, no matter how tiny said scoresheet is. Nino probably described everything in detail to every staff member, ensuring that every person who works with Jun knows Sakurai’s face just by description alone. Jun won’t put it past Nino, Nino has the tendency to be one step ahead of him especially regarding his currently nonexistent love life.  
  
To his disappointment, Mao just laughs again. She shakes her head as she keeps giggling. “Becky-san wanted to know what’s your opinion on having an addition of ivy flowers for each table?” Mao asks, like she hadn’t been implying anything only seconds ago.  
  
Not that there’s anything to imply, Jun thinks angrily.  
  
He schools his features back to business and shoves any thought of Sakurai to the back of his mind. He mildly succeeds, because the damn post-it is the only colored piece of paper in the bulletin board and Jun’s eyes naturally flock to it every once in a while.  
  
“I’ve listed all suitable choices for her, including the ivy,” he says, and Mao smiles, the ‘of course you did’ kind of smile she frequently makes.  
  
Becky arrives, which is earlier than expected, and Jun is only alerted to her presence when her bridesmaids outside let out happy exclamations all at the same time. He exchanges a meaningful glance with Mao and the latter laughs.  
  
“Patience, Jun-kun. Your client is here,” she reminds him, and Jun sighs before plastering on his most charming smile and heading out to meet Becky. He’s still the chief organizer, after all. He has to oversee things now that his client here, regardless if said client’s bridesmaids are quite a handful to deal with.  
  
He greets Becky with a perfunctory nod, smile still on his face, and the woman beams at him. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Nino shooting him a meaningful look, and when Jun does a quick scan of the room, he meets eyes with three of Becky’s bridesmaids, all of which turned away when he looked at them. Nino snickers, and he gives Jun a salute before heading out to the backroom.  
  
Jun knows he’s going to tell Mao about it, and he almost rolls his eyes when he sees Nino come back out with Mao in tow. He’s betting the two of them have a game number four hidden somewhere, probably called ‘how many people will be smitten by Matsumoto Jun’.  
  
“Shall we?” he says to Becky instead, leading her to his desk where he has laid out lists of possible flower arrangements for each dining table at the reception. Becky’s wedding with Aiba-san (who called him Matsujun at first meeting like they're very old friends; Jun is still recovering from it) is a small event, kept between relatives and close friends. Jun has handled larger events so he knows this wedding will be over in an instant.  
  
He just has to resist snapping at one of the bridesmaids because that’ll be really bad for business. Most of One Love’s clients come from previous recommendations, after all. Their shop has a lot of excellent reviews since Jun makes sure everybody in their staff works with dedication and with utmost efficiency. It’s up to Nino to train new recruits and handle most of the last-minute changes, something which Jun is incredibly thankful for. He doesn’t know what he will do without Nino around.  
  
It’s not that Jun is not capable of training new recruits and doing something about last-minute change of plans. It’s just that he always hated repeating himself and the chances of that happening are very high when he has to train someone. He has patience but there’s a limit to it. Nino is far more flexible when dealing with people so Nino wordlessly took that position ever since.  
  
Jun owes a lot to Nino, which is why he lets Nino get away with almost anything and that’s including the occasional meddling in his virtually nonexistent love life. Jun is, as everyone around him tells him, married to his job. He remembers laughing at the words when someone said it to him at first, given the nature of his work. But now that he looks at it, everyone who said that aren’t wrong at all.  
  
He is dedicated, he is passionate, he has good work ethic, and he delivers satisfactorily. Jun is proud of what he does every day. He helps people make their special day even more memorable by ensuring that he follows their client’s wishes to the best of his ability as a wedding planner. Granted, he has less time for himself because of his commitment to his job, but Jun supposes that’s to be expected given the nature of said job.  
  
When you’re assisting in other people’s weddings and you’re thirty-one, people around you begin to wonder when are you going to plan for your own wedding. That’s normal, and Jun’s used to it. And seeing as every single co-worker of his claims that he has the looks, the occurrence of questions of the same nature become quite frequent.  
  
Jun, however, is not looking for anyone in particular. As long as he gets to do what he loves, he’s fine. The Hawaii trip he has always dreamed of still lingers at the back of his head, but he figures the isles won’t really go anywhere so he’ll get there someday. He has always entertained the idea of visiting the place with someone else, someone special perhaps, but he has no one to call as such and seeing as he’s not looking for anyone at the moment, Hawaii will be saved for some other time in the future.  
  
He cracks his neck joints and focuses on laying out designs after designs for Becky to sift through and carefully examine. He has a job to do, he has a wedding to plan, and he is a professional.  
  
Hawaii can wait.


	3. Chapter 3

On the day of Aiba and Becky’s wedding, Sho _really_ ensured that he had everything. His gift money, his invitation, his mobile phone, his suit dry-cleaned and pressed, and his car in top condition. Being paranoid because of his previous experience, Sho double checks everything before driving off and keep on double checking everything every fifteen minutes.  
  
He arrives at the venue more than thirty minutes earlier, and Sho checks his reflection as much as his rear view mirror allows him. He leaves his hair slightly tousled, he’s not showing up for a marketing presentation after all. He figures Becky will appreciate that. Becky always says he looks too formal and too serious for his own good and that he should relax a little, and Sho has no doubt Becky will call him out if he looks like he’s showing up for work instead for his friends’ wedding.  
  
Aiba and Becky’s wedding is one of the main reasons why Sho got a haircut and if his barber is to be trusted, then he looks more than decent. Not that he used to have an unruly hair, but he has been neglecting it and relying severely on hair gel lately due to the presentations he had piling up for weeks.  
  
Deciding he looks presentable and appropriate enough as a guest, Sho unlocks his doors and steps out of his car, tucking the envelope and invitation in his coat pocket. The wedding venue is a garden restaurant, and from what Sho heard from Aiba, the reception will take place immediately after the ceremony. Sho takes a deep breath, willing himself not to be nervous because it’s not him getting married and he’s here just a guest (it doesn’t work though) as he strides inside.  
  
The first thing he sees when he enters the portals labeled with ‘Aiba  & Becky’ on a signboard is Ninomiya’s smiling face.  
  
Sho blinks when Ninomiya ushers him inside with a very cheerful “Sho-chan!” and he has to clear his throat to get some words out, but Ninomiya beats him to it by immediately handing him a pen and asking him to sign in the guestbook.  
  
As Sho does what Ninomiya told him to do, he feels Ninomiya put an arm around his shoulder in a friendly manner. The man is still grinning and Sho is starting to feel a little bothered by the display of familiarity.  
  
Ninomiya seems to sense this. “Don’t worry, Sho-chan,” he says, and this time Sho manages to frown at the nickname, “no one’s sending you away this time because you’re actually in the right wedding.”  
  
Regaining his composure, Sho manages a “You won’t let me sign if I wasn’t, will you?” He hands Ninomiya the guestbook back, including the pen.  
  
Ninomiya only laughs before clapping him on the back and handing both items to the receptionist that Sho only took notice of now. Sho pulls out his gift and hands it to the receptionist, knowing it’s part of her job to accept such things from the guests as they sign in. He turns back to Ninomiya who has a hand outstretched towards the rest of the garden.  
  
It’s only now that Sho looks around and notices the simple yet impressive overall design of the garden venue, the seemingly sparse yet elaborate manner of decorating the place. He isn’t even aware that he looks so impressed with what he sees until he hears Ninomiya say, “Yeah, that’s Jun-kun’s skills for you.”  
  
Sho snaps back to reality and he blinks owlishly at Ninomiya, who only grins. “Who do you think designed this whole place to look like this, Sho-chan?” Ninomiya asks him, his eyes holding a meaning Sho doesn’t know and will probably never know.  
  
Sho doesn’t want to say Matsumoto’s name so he doesn’t. “Becky?” he says, and Ninomiya laughs and shakes his head before stepping closer to Sho.  
  
“Jun-kun’s not that terrifying, you know,” Ninomiya tells him, low enough that only Sho can hear what he just said. “He may seem like that, but he’s not really like that.”  
  
Sho swallows a lump in his throat. “As you are most definitely aware, Ninomiya-san,” he begins, stressing out the polite way of addressing Ninomiya and the man just continues grinning as he raises an eyebrow at Sho, “Matsumoto-san and I didn’t meet under entirely favorable circumstances.”  
  
Ninomiya keeps the smile on his face and he tugs on Sho’s sleeve to usher him towards his seat. Sho waits for any comeback from Ninomiya, but they simply walk past tables in silence. Only when Ninomiya has finally taken him to his seat does the man lean forward like he’s about to tell Sho a secret.  
  
“I’ll tell Jun-kun you arrived. He’d love to know that,” Ninomiya whispers before drawing back and winking at him, and before Sho can say anything, Ninomiya turns around and leaves him in his seat. Sho remains standing and looking at Ninomiya’s retreating back until one of his and Aiba’s co-workers claps him hard on the back and tells him to sit down and join in the talk. He gets a lot of approvals regarding his haircut and overall change of look and it’s enough to keep a smile on his face.  
  
As Sho gets involved with a story regarding Aiba’s starting days at the company, he tries his best to push the idea of Ninomiya telling Matsumoto that he’s here to the back of his mind.  
  
When Yokoyama begins a story of how Aiba keeps on misreading the kanji in the names of various recruits much to the annoyance of the HR head, Sho finds himself laughing along with the rest of his co-workers and any thought related to Matsumoto becomes something he decided to save for later if he sees Matsumoto himself.  
  
\--  
  
When Nino finds him and has a really mischievous grin on his face (Jun has known how to accurately read Nino’s grins a long time ago), Jun rolls his eyes. There’s a reason he deliberately stepped away from the receptionist spot, something Nino gladly called out hours earlier with the same impish smile on his face with a comment of “He might bring savarin again, you know? Might as well welcome him myself if you won’t, seeing as you didn’t share at that time!”  
  
“He’s here, you know,” Nino tells him now, and Jun keeps his eyes on his tablet despite having read the same items on his checklist for more than five times. He swears he’s not going to respond to any of Nino’s hinting for today and he will deliberately avoid Sakurai if he can.  
  
He hears Nino laugh and Jun closes his eyes and counts mentally, trying not to snap. “Jun-kun,” Nino says, voice full of amusement, “you should really see how he looks like. He got a new haircut and if I didn’t know any better I’d say Yuriko-chan stared at him for a while.”  
  
Jun turns to Nino with a frown. “I bet she only stared at him because you told everyone else how he looked like to the point everyone is now looking out for him. Besides, Yuriko-chan is supposed to hand him the guestbook the moment he stepped in, not stare at him.”  
  
Nino simply tilts his head, a knowing smile still on his face. “Relax, Jun-kun. I handed him the guestbook myself. I ushered him inside myself because you’re too chicken to handle that yourself. As a good friend, I did you a favor.”  
  
Jun grits his teeth at that. He can’t deny Nino’s accusation of him chickening out because it’s true, he deliberately wanted to avoid Sakurai at all costs. Jun can still remember how his staff at One Love laughed at his face when Becky handed him the guest list, how his eyes widened at Sakurai’s name. He can still remember how Nino went on to describe how Sakurai looks like just so everyone would know who the guy is when the day comes.  
  
Knowing that today he’s going to see the same man who has a new post-it tally on their bulletin board, Jun let Nino oversee the welcoming of the guests and focused on overseeing the other preparations instead. This wedding is something he worked on and Nino is just a supporting organizer, but he knows Nino noticed his not-so-subtle attempt at avoiding a post he usually helms.  
  
“And? Anything else of import that you’d like me to know?” he asks Nino. He’s glaring and Nino’s laughing, a usual pattern between them. Sometimes he wonders how vastly different his definition of a good friend is from Nino’s.  
  
Jun shrugs before turning his back on Nino, figuring that Nino won’t say anything anymore because that’s usually how these conversations end. Jun doesn’t really understand why Nino keeps on making a big deal about Sakurai. Sure, Jun will admit that Sakurai can be attractive provided that he chooses to wear the right things and has the right expression on his face, but it’s not like Sakurai is the first person Jun ever acknowledged to be good-looking.  
  
And lest everybody forgets, Sakurai crashed Shun’s wedding months ago and Jun will never forget that happening no matter how aesthetically pleasing Sakurai can be. Jun hasn’t seen him yet, but from what he knows of Yuriko, she rarely notices attractive people unless it’s right on her face.  
  
So Jun’s really not looking forward to meet Sakurai. He thinks he can manage to avoid table number 17 if he puts his mind to it. Jun only remembers the table number because it’s in his nature as a wedding planner. It’s not like he remembers it because Sakurai is somehow involved.  
  
It’s really nothing like that.  
  
Jun sighs as he remains in his place, hiding behind a curtain to the backroom they’re somehow provided with, peering only a little to check the skies for any sign of rain. The last thing he wants is for the weather to betray him during a garden wedding, especially when said wedding is beginning in three minutes.  
  
“It’s time, Nino,” he says, pointing to his watch, and Nino just nods. Jun steps out of the curtain and looks at the people he assigned with the music and the lighting, giving them the wordless implication that they’re not allowed to screw up for the next few hours.  
  
Nino stands by his side, and Jun tries his very best not to look at anywhere to his right where he’s certain table number 17 is. He has the whole layout memorized and Jun knows if he doesn’t turn his head to the right, the chances of him not seeing Sakurai at all are very high.  
  
He hears Nino snicker and Jun nudges him with an elbow as the march plays, and Jun straightens up, looking like every bit of the professional wedding planner he prides himself to be. Beside him, he sees Nino stand up a little straighter, and Jun knows anything about Sakurai will probably get mentioned much, much later when the reception is already taking place.  
  
For now, he knows he can trust Nino to be professional about the job, so he pushes any thought of Sakurai to the back of his mind.  
  
\--  
  
Sho thinks his smile can split his face when he sees how happy Aiba and Becky are. He feels immensely grateful that he can witness such a time in the lives of his friends, and he’s pretty sure anyone else in the same room shares the same feeling. The ceremony is nothing special; it followed the usual procedure as all weddings do, but it’s the way Aiba and Becky grinned at each other that made everything a whole lot different.  
  
Not for the first time, Sho realizes that Aiba made a good decision to seriously pursue the barista who used to hate his guts.  
  
Sho applauded as hard as everyone else when the ceremony concluded, and now he finds himself sitting on a table marked as 17 along with his co-workers who are as much of a bachelor as he is. Yokoyama is as old as he is, and naturally the both of them get most of questions about settling down now that Aiba has done just that.  
  
Sho waves off the questions as he’s accustomed of doing every single time someone tells him the same things. He keeps a lighthearted conversation with his co-workers until Aiba and Becky approach their table for photos. Aiba gives him a brief hug which he returns, and Becky kisses him on the cheek when he congratulates them both.  
  
“You were there when this whole crazy thing began, Sakurai-kun,” Becky tells him with a wink, and Sho laughs, remembering how Becky glared at him and Aiba for being too noisy in the café.  
  
How things have changed, he thinks as he looks at Becky in her stunning wedding gown and Aiba in his handsome suit.  
  
“I’ll never forget how you hated us,” he reminds Becky, and Aiba laughs beside her. Becky hated them for their noise, for Aiba’s endless requests of “more cream, more cream!” even if his coffee looked more like milk than coffee, an obvious ploy to have Becky on their table at that time.  
  
“Look at us now,” Becky says with a tiny shake of her head, as if she can’t believe the whole thing. Sho understands that because now that they’re right in front of him, he fully realizes how far Aiba and Becky have come.  
  
Aiba directs everyone to assemble for the photo and when Sho turns to the direction of the camera, it’s then that he finally sees Matsumoto, standing beside the desserts table and obviously clarifying things with a member of his staff. Matsumoto has his back turned on him, but Sho knows he will recognize that posture anywhere.  
  
After the shot, everybody returns to their seats except for him because Becky stops him with a hand on his sleeve. Sho turns, and it’s then that Becky flicks a finger to his hair before claiming that she likes it and that Sho should keep the hairstyle if he could.  
  
“You look younger and refreshing,” Becky adds, and Sho smiles at the compliment. He’s a little distracted on account that he finally saw Matsumoto, and Becky must have noticed it because she turns to where Sho spared a glance at before turning back to Sho with a frown.  
  
Becky suddenly grins, and she tells both Aiba and Sho that she’ll be right back. Sho’s eyes widen in alarm when he sees Becky approach Matsumoto and tug on the man’s arm, an obvious attempt to get Matsumoto to where he and Aiba are.  
  
“That’s him, Sho-chan,” he hears Aiba say somewhere to his left, “the one with the strong facial features that I told you about. The one who helped plan our wedding.”  
  
Sho never told Aiba that he knows Matsumoto, and he wishes he did just so he can say that he needs no introduction but instead needs to probably run away or hide his face, but it’s too late.  
  
He sees Matsumoto following Becky and the man’s eyes narrow and his eyebrows come together when he finally meets Sho’s eyes. Sho tilts his head in acknowledgement, and he’s unable to hide the surprise from his face when Matsumoto nods back at him.  
  
“Sakurai-kun,” Becky begins when she and Matsumoto are now standing in front him and Sho can only stare at Matsumoto because the man is wearing a bowtie and a crisp suit and it does nothing but add to his attractiveness, and Sho is just fucked, he knows it, “this is Matsumoto Jun-kun, our wedding planner.”  
  
Becky turns to Matsumoto and says, “Jun-kun, this is Sakurai Sho-kun, Masaki’s good friend slash frequent accomplice.” Sho has no idea why Becky saw fit to introduce him to Matsumoto, but the way Becky says the introductions makes it seem like she knows something else. However, Sho can’t think on those meanings at the moment because this is the first time that Matsumoto is looking at him without an ounce of hatred in his brown eyes.  
  
This close, Sho can see just how brown Matsumoto’s eyes are and he has to swallow a lump in his throat because it suddenly feels too dry.  
  
Matsumoto extends a hand at him. “It’s been a while,” he says to Sho, and Sho wills his hand not to tremble as he tries to give Matsumoto a firm handshake. He expected anything but acknowledgement, and as always, Matsumoto catches him off-guard.  
  
“You know each other?” he hears Aiba ask, and Sho finds himself nodding.  
  
“Somehow, yeah,” he manages to say, and it’s only then that he realizes he still has to let go of Matsumoto’s hand. He pulls away all of a sudden, his palm feeling too warm to the touch.  
  
Before Aiba or Becky can ask either of them to elaborate, Matsumoto does. “We met at another wedding I planned for some months ago,” he explains, and while Aiba merely nods, Becky looks at him with a glint in her eyes and Sho suddenly feels too stuffed in his suit.  
  
Aiba claps him on the shoulder. “You should have told me you know Matsujun here, Sho-chan! The three of us could have shared a drink or two together.”  
  
Matsumoto’s eyebrow twitches at that, and Sho takes that as his cue to say, “We’re only acquainted, we don’t really know each other very much,” because it’s the truth. Lest he gets himself in a far more awkward conversation than he can account for, he figures he might as well get the truth out as soon as possible.  
  
He sees Becky pulling Aiba away. “Well, it’s never too late to get past being acquainted, don’t you think?” Becky tells them with a knowing smile, and with that, she and Aiba move to table number 18, leaving him and Matsumoto standing awkwardly in front of each other and not knowing what to say.  
  
He hears Matsumoto make some excuse about overseeing something important but Sho suddenly finds his courage and blurts out a “Thank you” before Matsumoto can leave.  
  
Matsumoto frowns at him, but instead of annoyance, it’s confusion that’s currently on his rather handsome face and Sho’s thankful for that change. He smiles, hoping it comes out as sincere as he repeats, “Thank you.” He turns his gaze to Aiba and Becky who are now making such happy faces for their photographer before turning back to Matsumoto. “Thank you for putting this whole thing together and making them so happy. I’ve never seen Aiba-chan and Becky this happy.”  
  
Matsumoto’s expression shifts to something Sho can no longer define, so he settles for keeping his hopefully earnest smile on his face. “It’s part of my job,” Matsumoto says softly, like he’s choosing his words carefully and Sho just nods in understanding.  
  
“Still, thank you, Matsumoto-san, for all your hard work.”  
  
Matsumoto resolves for simply nodding at that, then he gives Sho a slight bow and finally excuses himself. Sho lets him, finding it far easier to smile now that he has managed to exchange a few words with Matsumoto that didn’t fall under hatred or anything similar to it.  
  
\--  
  
Jun needed to get away fast from Sakurai when the man looked at him with such earnest eyes and flashed him a sincere smile. Jun has never seen Sakurai smile before so it was only then that he found out how it looked like (Sakurai has lines surrounding each of his eyes when he smiles), and combine that with the haircut Nino gladly told him about, Jun no longer managed any form of reply before he hastily made an exit.  
  
He honestly didn’t suspect Becky would take matters into her own hands and introduce him to someone else, but Jun supposes that working with Becky for months made her pick up a thing or two. Becky has always been sharp and perceptive, and Jun knows Becky’s bridesmaids must have told Becky how he rejected every single one of their invites for casual hanging out.  
  
Becky has eight bridesmaids, five of which asked Jun out at various instances during the planning process. Jun can still remember how Nino rubbed his palms together at the sight of one of them inviting him before disappearing into the backroom, presumably to add a number to his tally. Jun had to decline at that time because he still had to recheck the dates of the flower delivery, and yet, somehow Becky managed to see through the whole thing, if her seemingly casual attempt at introducing Sakurai to Jun was any indication.  
  
And if Jun’s gut feeling is right, Becky must have introduced them to one another because they have something in common.  
  
So Jun had to get away fast because he won’t deny that he found Yuriko’s staring at Sakurai justified when he saw the man with his own eyes. The last time he saw Sakurai in a suit, the man was sweating like a pig and he looked like hell, but now that he has his hair tousled and trimmed and he no longer looked flushed and frustrated, Jun finally acknowledges that Sakurai is indeed attractive.  
  
He has a feeling Sakurai is not aware of that, not one bit, and Jun finds himself hating the idea of that so much that it automatically extends to hating Sakurai himself.  
  
Mao finds him frowning at the fraisier set from Freestyle ready to be served at the tables, and she pokes his side with a finger. Jun scowls at her because she always manages to hit the side that is sensitive, and Mao, like Nino will do in such a situation, just laughs.  
  
“I see you’ve finally met him again,” she tells him, her voice low enough so that only Jun can hear her. “I figured you’d rather have me corner you about it instead of Nino, so here I am.”  
  
Jun rolls his eyes, double checking the number of fraisier laid out for every guest in every table. He makes a quick mental count and moves to the eclairs, doing a quick scan if every platter has an eclair each. “I’d prefer if none of you would corner me at all, actually,” he informs Mao, who only giggles at him.  
  
“Still,” Mao says, and Jun turns to her with a frown because of course she still pushes despite his insistence that he’d rather not talk about it, “you have to admit, Jun-kun, that Sakurai-san’s haircut suits him.”  
  
Jun glares at her. “I don’t have to admit anything,” he says with gritted teeth and a fake smile. “Don’t you have work to do?” he asks her, deliberately changing the topic because he will never admit anything that concerns Sakurai Sho no matter how true it is.  
  
Mao just grins at him, not the slightest bit intimidated. “I’m your events coordinator,” she reminds him as if Jun has forgotten, “and the fact that we’re all here means that I already did my job.”  
  
Sometimes, Jun hates how high the tendency of his co-workers to be smartasses can be, and he hates that Nino is probably the primary reason why everyone turns out to be a smartass after a year or two of working with them. Nino’s attitude is like the plague, something everyone eventually catches for themselves provided they’re exposed to it adequately. And seeing as Nino is really skilled at connecting with people, nearly everyone surrounding Jun already has an ounce of Nino’s attitude inside themselves.  
  
Jun sighs, knowing that this is a round he has to concede. If he doesn’t, that’ll only prolong his agony and possibly disrupt his concentration in watching over the remainders of today’s event. “He looks all right,” he says in a small voice, and he’s slightly thankful that it’s Mao who made him say it and not Nino, because Nino will undoubtedly make him repeat what he just said just so Nino can rub it in his face over and over again.  
  
Still, Jun will never admit exactly how much it suits Sakurai so he settles for a generic comment like “all right”.  
  
He turns to Mao and fixes her a look. “I just said what you wanted me to say so can we please get back to work?”  
  
Mao giggles and she pats his shoulder good-naturedly. “Whatever you say, Jun-kun.” She keeps the grin on her face as she does what Jun asked of her, and Jun wills himself to focus on his tablet and to the rest of the reception. His job is far from over and no matter how much of a worthy distraction Sakurai proved to be this afternoon, Jun’s job comes first and he’ll never let someone get in the way of that.  
  
Regardless of how attractive they are.  
  
And yet, a part of Jun is desperate to prove that he is indeed a hard worker because of what Sakurai said to him. He finds himself wanting to prove that what Sakurai said is true, that Sakurai’s gratitude is justified because a part of him knows that there’s a possibility of Sakurai watching his every move, and Jun, naturally, wants to give his best like always and not just because someone like Sakurai might be watching.  
  
He wants to prove to everyone who’s around to see that he’s Matsumoto Jun and he’s an effective wedding planner, and the only way he can do so is by showing that this event is something he poured a lot of thought and dedication into. He has to show that this is a wedding he has committed himself to for months for it to become far more memorable for his clients. Most people only get married once in their lives, and Jun wants to use the nature of his job to make that one particular day extra special, something his clients will fondly look back to in the years to come.  
  
Jun squares his shoulders and keep a straight face, knowing that his job is far from done. He gestures for Mao to follow him and she does, no longer making a mention of any of the guests in today’s wedding, something Jun is thankful for.  
  
Honestly, Jun has no problem about them talking about Sakurai as much as they want provided that the man is not in the same room.  
  
Later, when the event finally wraps up, Jun, against his better judgment, looks around for any sign of Sakurai, and he tries to quell an unknown feeling inside him when he finds that Sakurai already left. Not that Jun has anything to say to him, he doesn’t even know why he’s looking for Sakurai in the first place.  
  
Like always, Nino keeps on dropping hints even as they wrap up everything (“I think I saw something like a handshake there?”). Nino has a really annoying smile on his face and Jun scowls at him, refusing to bite into any of Nino’s baits. It’s only when they’re finally in the van on the way home that he allows himself a long sigh, a combination of exhaustion and relief because everything went according to plan and he has fulfilled every bit of his clients’ requests and his body demands nothing but rest after everything that happened today.  
  
“Take tomorrow off,” Nino tells him, and he says it in a way that offers no room for argument, so Jun just nods, already dozing off at the passenger side as Nino drives off. He dreams of gardens and of earnest eyes which crinkle at the sides, and finally, of a place Jun can only think of as Hawaii.


	4. Chapter 4

Sho thinks his jaw has become acquainted with the floor when his sister, Mai, tells him that she intends to get married nine months from now.  
  
His sister has been engaged for three years to one of her classmates during her university days, and Sho has always known that she’ll get married first before him, but the fact that she tells him about it only a few weeks after Aiba’s wedding is what surprises him.  
  
He honestly didn’t imagine that everyone around him getting married extends to his family members. At this rate, Sho’s sure he’s going to get more of the “So when are you going to settle down, Sho-kun? Do you have any plans of settling down at all?” kind of questions. Apparently, it’s not enough that he gets it whenever a colleague gets married. Now it’s his sister, and he can only gape at her when she asks, “Do you know of a good wedding planner?”  
  
The first thought that comes into Sho’s mind is One Love and Matsumoto Jun and his charming smile and handsome face and really brown eyes, but that’s not what his sister probably wants to hear so he manages a “I may know the guy who planned Aiba-chan’s wedding.”  
  
Mai obviously knows who Aiba is. She frequently has lunch dates with Sho and sometimes Aiba greets them when he sees them, and Sho can remember having introduced his sister to Aiba in one of those times. Mai only looks thoughtful, then she’s beaming at Sho and Sho can only wonder what she’s thinking.  
  
“Then take me to that guy this weekend,” Mai says.  
  
And that’s how Sho finds himself standing outside One Love in Chiyoda again, this time with his sister in tow. Sho asked her multiple times why she doesn’t ask her fiancée Eiji-kun to take her instead, but Mai insists that she has to plan for everything carefully and she will need his input every now and then.  
  
“Besides,” Mai says as she pulls Sho towards the glass doors of One Love, “you said you know that guy. That will make things a whole lot easier.” Sho supposes his sister will only ask Eiji-kun to come with her once she has more or less a framework of what she wants. Sho understands her need to plan because he has the same attitude on most things.  
  
He hears Ninomiya’s cheerful “Welcome!” when he pulls the door open, and Sho steps inside after his sister. Ninomiya grins at him, and Sho’s certain not every customer gets that kind of familiar smile from the guy. Ninomiya looks like he’s less than five seconds away from laughing from a joke Sho isn’t privy to.  
  
“Back so soon, Sho-chan?” Ninomiya asks with a tilt of his head, and Mai turns to him expectantly.  
  
Sho clears his throat. “Actually, Ninomiya-san,” he tries, putting a hand at the small Mai’s back to push her forward, “my sister wants to avail your shop’s services.”  
  
Ninomiya’s eyes narrow for a moment before it shifts to something like genuine amusement. He extends a hand towards Mai and says politely, “Ninomiya Kazunari, at your service. Call me Nino from now on.”  
  
Sho’s sister grins before accepting the handshake. She introduces herself as Sho’s sister, and Sho shakes Ninomiya’s hand out of politeness, something Ninomiya keeps on smiling at.  
  
“There are two of us organizers in here,” Ninomiya informs them, but he has his eyes on Sho when he says the word ‘two’ and Sho tries not to look affected. He won’t deny wondering where the other one is, but that’s something he doesn’t have to show to anyone. “And I’m afraid I’m rather preoccupied with another wedding. Lots of people are settling down lately, you see.”  
  
Sho tries to control his expression because he knows exactly where Ninomiya is going. Mai, however, has no idea, so she asks innocently, “Oh? Then is your other organizer available?”  
  
Ninomiya smirks and he locks eyes with Sho when he says, “Very much so. Let me call him.”  
  
Ninomiya gestures for them to take a seat, something Mai happily accepts, and Sho settles for grabbing the back of the chair to support his weight as Ninomiya disappears to the backroom.  
  
“He called you Sho-chan,” Mai whispers, her eyes narrowing to ask for an explanation.  
  
Sho simply sighs. “He’s overly friendly, as you’ve noticed.”  
  
His sister only nods, and when Sho lifts his head, he finds himself staring back at Matsumoto Jun.  
  
Matsumoto, who has his sleeves rolled up and his hair having no trace of hair gel and other products, and Sho has to blink for a few moments because Matsumoto is wearing a blue long-sleeved tee and a pair of slightly form-fitting jeans. He also has a pair of glasses with thick black frames on, something Sho has never seen him wearing before.  
  
Sho has an inkling that Matsumoto is not aware of how he looks like at this particular moment, and Sho thinks that’s really, really unfair. He has to will himself to look away lest he embarrasses himself any further.  
  
Ninomiya steps in front of Matsumoto and introduces him to Sho’s sister, saying that Matsumoto is the other wedding planner and seeing as Nino’s fully booked, Matsumoto will handle everything from now on. Mai simply beams at Matsumoto, and Sho has to steady himself when Matsumoto smiles genially at his sister.  
  
Sho finally gets his proof that Matsumoto is definitely not aware of anything, especially since he smiles like that, like he doesn’t know what it can do to people.  
  
“This is my brother, Sho,” Mai introduces with a hand gesturing towards him, and Sho makes a polite nod before extending a hand.  
  
Matsumoto shakes his hand with a slight tilt of his head. “Sho-san,” he says in acknowledgement, and Sho tries to hide his surprise at the casual use of his name, the way something warm settles itself in his belly. He supposes that way of addressing him is normal seeing as there are two Sakurais in front of Matsumoto right now, but it still didn’t prepare him for the way his name sounded in Matsumoto’s voice, and he’s sure Matsumoto saw his surprise if the amusement that’s currently evident in the man’s eyes is any indication.  
  
Matsumoto lets go of his hand to gesture towards his desk. “Let’s start with the basics, shall we, Mai-san?” Mai beams at him, and Sho knows that that’s the smile his sister gives when she’s charmed.  
  
Well, it’s not like Sho can blame her. He’s starting to think it’s in his blood to be charmed by a certain wedding planner.  
  
Matsumoto patiently listens to what Mai prefers, taking notes every now and then in his tablet. Sho is having a hard time not staring as Matsumoto diligently listens to what his sister has to say. He is also having a rather challenging time not to stare at the way Matsumoto’s lips move and how the markings around it shift as Matsumoto confirms the details from Mai, and he’s sure Ninomiya caught on because the man was smiling with a lot of meaning when he served them tea.  
  
For his part, Ninomiya leaves them alone. He only supplements Matsumoto’s explanations from time to time, ensuring transparency and clarity before disappearing into the backroom or fiddling with the workload on his own desk. For the first time, Sho observes how well Matsumoto and Ninomiya work together, that just because Ninomiya has his own wedding to plan for doesn’t mean he will leave everything entirely to Matsumoto. The way Ninomiya helps support the conversation has Sho wondering how long the two have known each other, for Ninomiya to easily grasp the workings of Matsumoto’s mind.  
  
Mai seems very much convinced with Matsumoto abilities, something Ninomiya unashamedly bragged about when he handed Mai their shop portfolio. Matsumoto looks sheepish at the sudden focus on his past work, something Sho doesn’t understand very well because the proof is in the photos. Matsumoto has a keen eye for detail; he’s attentive and observant and he obviously tries his best to cater to what his clients want. Sho is, simply put, sold as much as his sister is. Like Mai, he is convinced that they’re leaving the upcoming wedding in very good hands.  
  
When Ninomiya offers to take Mai to the backroom where they have dioramas and profiles of possible venues, Sho stands up to follow his sister, but before he can take a step, Mai tells him he can sit back and let her choose.  
  
“I’ll just have a look around and pick a top three or something,” she assures Sho, “then we can visit those top three and see for ourselves. I can handle this.”  
  
Sho purses his lips, knowing that once he lets Mai go he’ll be left alone with Matsumoto. “Shouldn’t you take Eiji-kun with you during that time?” he asks, wondering when the hell will his sister’s fiancée enter the picture.  
  
Mai laughs, and something tells Sho that that’s the sound of her calling him stupid or something similar in her head. “Of course I will take him with me, but as my brother you have a responsibility to me too, don’t you? Since I’m getting married way ahead of you.”  
  
Sho raises his hands in surrender. He can never win against Mai, no matter how hard he tries. Being the elder, Sho finds himself often giving in to what she says. If she wants to have lunch with him, he has to have lunch with her. If she wants him to eat more vegetables, he has to eat more vegetables. It’s as simple as that. So if Mai tells him he should accompany her and her soon-to-be husband, he has to accompany them.  
  
He sighs, and Mai disappears to the backroom with Ninomiya, leaving him and Matsumoto alone. Matsumoto diligently peruses through some files on his laptop, his glasses reflecting a bit of what he’s currently working on. Not knowing what to say, Sho simply sits and waits in silence.  
  
He tries not to jump in surprise when he hears Matsumoto’s voice. “Feels like we should talk about something instead of letting this awkward silence stretch,” Matsumoto says, and Sho turns to him nervously. Matsumoto is obviously no good at small talk either because he still has his eyes intensely focused on the screen of his laptop, pointedly not giving Sho any glance whatsoever.  
  
Sho clears his throat. “She asked if I knew a good wedding planner so I brought her here,” he says, not trusting himself to look at Matsumoto. From his periphery he can see Matsumoto looking at him, and Sho knows he can never meet Matsumoto’s stare so he doesn’t bother to try anymore. He has no problem if Matsumoto’s stare is a look of utmost hatred. But when it’s a look that’s filled with something else, something that’s not part of usual thing Matsumoto seems to save for him ever since they first met, he doesn’t know what to do.  
  
“On behalf of One Love, I’ll say I’m honored,” Matsumoto says, and Sho can’t place his voice no matter how hard he tries, so he resolves for just fiddling with the pens Matsumoto has in a mug on his desk.  
  
He knows Matsumoto is watching his every move intently. His fingers play with a pen with a purple fuzzy ball for a while before he says, “I still can’t believe she’s doing it way ahead of me, though,” knowing that Matsumoto understands what he means. Being an older brother, Sho has grown accustomed to being the first in doing everything. Now, Mai is going to settle down before the year ends and Sho still has no one else he wants to do that with.  
  
“Well, that happens,” he hears Matsumoto say softly as the man clicks on something on his laptop. “You’re really close with your sister, aren’t you?”  
  
Sho thinks he can hear a bit of uncertainty in Matsumoto’s voice, but he has no idea what can possibly be the cause of that. He has always seen Matsumoto so confident, so precise in what he wants. He can’t place the way Matsumoto’s making him feel right now so he turns to look at the man’s face, trying to gauge anything from Matsumoto’s reactions.  
  
“I guess you can say that, yeah,” he finds himself agreeing, and when Matsumoto gives him a small smile, just a slight curving of his full lips that makes the tiny marks around his mouth shift, Sho thinks that Matsumoto can say anything at this moment and he will agree to it no matter what it is.  
  
It’s only now that Sho realizes how bad he truly has it.  
  
He looks away from Matsumoto’s piercing gaze and somehow fond smile when he hears Ninomiya’s voice from the backroom followed by Mai’s pleased laugh. Sho looks at Mai expectantly, and his sister darts a glance to Matsumoto before looking back at him and smiling.  
  
“Matsumoto-san,” Mai begins, and Matsumoto diligently turns to her, “I’ll have my brother as my emergency contact, if you don’t mind.” She beams at Sho, and Sho just sighs in defeat. Mai already gave her and Eiji-kun’s contact details to Matsumoto earlier, and Sho knows this is just his sister’s ploy to have him drive her around in case her fiancée is not available.  
  
Still, that means Matsumoto will have his number and Sho finds himself dreading the idea of Matsumoto calling him. Not because he doesn’t wish to talk to Matsumoto, but because it is Matsumoto and Sho doesn’t really know how to proceed when it comes to someone he’s severely attracted to. It’s been a while since he found himself attracted to anyone. He’s rusty, given the long gaps between relationships and the lack of someone he wants to seriously pursue if given the chance.  
  
He doesn’t trust himself not to stammer and stare whenever he’s around Matsumoto and Sho hates himself for acting like a kindergarten kid. Has it always been like this, he wonders? Has he always acted in this manner whenever he’s around someone who’s exactly like his type, someone who gets full marks in every category he has set?  
  
Sho snaps back to reality when he feels Matsumoto’s hand on his arm. “Sho-san?” Matsumoto asks, his eyes seemingly bigger because of his glasses and Sho knows it won’t take much for him to lose himself in those. The way Matsumoto said his name isn’t helping, either.  
  
“Yes?” he manages, because something tells him Matsumoto just asked him for something and he obviously didn’t catch it because he was too busy thinking of how attracted he is to the guy.  
  
Matsumoto pulls back his hand and yet Sho can still feel warmth from the spot Matsumoto just touched despite the sleeve of his cardigan preventing direct contact. “May I have a card or anything with your contact information?” Matsumoto asks, and now Sho’s certain it’s the second time the man asked the same question because he catches Ninomiya trying his hardest to suppress a grin.  
  
He’s so obvious and he hates himself for it, but somehow Sho manages to pull out a card from his wallet (he keeps a few in there just in case) and hands it to Matsumoto, who takes it gratefully. When Sho meets Mai’s eyes, his sister just smiles at him, her grin revealing nothing.  
  
Mai wraps her hands around his arm, pulling him up. “I think we’ve covered the basics for today?” she asks Ninomiya and Matsumoto, who nod at the same time. Ninomiya even gives her a thumbs up. Sho marvels at Ninomiya’s skills at communicating with people, having already bridged a gap with his sister by simply showing her dioramas and models of wedding venues.  
  
Mai smiles at them and extends a hand, something both Matsumoto and Ninomiya shook gratefully. “I look forward to working with you, then,” she tells them, and Sho feels an ounce of pride at the way his sister handles herself, the way she shows them that it’s still her show they’re going to run and they’re only around to help her with it. He doesn’t suppress the grin he feels like making when she said that.  
  
“We’ll contact you or your fiancée or Sho-chan here once we have spoken with our coordinator,” Ninomiya tells them, giving Sho a smile that can only be mischievous. Now that One Love has another project in their hands, Sho knows it’s going to be a tough time for both Matsumoto and Ninomiya to plan this whole thing out. He supposes that the next time he steps inside this shop with his sister is the time Matsumoto will lay out a bunch of papers containing proposals. Matsumoto is the main planner of course, but from what Sho saw earlier, he’s certain Ninomiya will never leave his partner hanging.  
  
Sho begins to wonder what exactly is the depth of the relationship Matsumoto has with Ninomiya if that is indeed the case.  
  
“That’ll be perfect, thank you,” Mai says, already hauling him away. She bids them goodbye for now and excuses them, and Sho makes one last polite bow, meeting Ninomiya’s amused smile and Matsumoto’s indecipherable eyes before he turns, leaving the wedding planning to the two organizers.  
  
\--  
  
Nino laughs the moment Sakurai and his sister left the shop and Jun rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you can add something to your stupid tallies,” he says, shooting Nino a look.  
  
Nino just raises an eyebrow at him. “I have a new one, Jun-kun. One I never told you about.” Nino smirks as he points to his own temple. “And guess what, the current number is at three.”  
  
Jun narrows his eyes. “What, ‘the number of times I met Sakurai Sho’? That’s your new tally?”  
  
Nino looks insulted, a hand over his heart. “Your math is horrible, Jun-kun,” he says. “If that was the name of my new one then the number shouldn’t be at three.”  
  
Nino has a point. Today marks the fourth time Jun met Sakurai. The first time was with Sakurai being an asshole and almost spoiling Shun’s wedding. The second was when Sakurai apologized for being an asshole and offered Jun some savarin au rhum which he savored till the last spoonful. The third, with the wedding from three weeks ago, was with Sakurai no longer being an asshole and being a guest instead.  
  
Now, he has Sakurai as his client by extension because of the guy’s sister and Jun tries hard not to think of how weird things are becoming.  
  
“The new tally is called ‘the number of times I caught Sho-chan looking at you like you’re Helen of Troy or something’,” Nino says, and Jun scowls at him before hitting him on the arm.  
  
Three, Nino said to him. Jun is not aware of those ever happening because he isn’t comfortable with looking at Sakurai in the eye. He’s almost certain that is a mutual thing between them because Sakurai never really looks at him unless the guy has to.  
  
“You’re imagining things,” he tells Nino, refusing to believe any of it. Nino just keeps an eyebrow up, his way of telling Jun that Jun is being faithless again.  
  
“I will never understand your lack of awareness regarding how you look,” Nino tells him, reaching out on his desk to retrieve Sakurai’s business card and reading the information on it. Jun chooses not to reply to that because he doesn’t know what to say. He’s aware that he looks better than average, yes, but it’s the extent of just how much which escapes him completely. He lacks confidence regarding himself when he’s not planning from a wedding and doing his job, and he’s stated that more than once in front of Nino.  
  
“I’m aware I have a strong face,” he says, snatching Sakurai’s card back. He has already read what it says, already found out for himself that Sakurai is a marketing chief at a well-known multinational company. Such a person like him in such a position in such a company makes Jun wonder how come Sakurai’s sister is getting married before her brother. Surely, with such credentials and such looks (Jun admits it), Sakurai must have had a few questions here and there, more than the casual invites Jun gets from time to time?  
  
He hears Nino shrug. “What you’re not aware of is how exactly that face of yours looks like, Jun-kun, and the effect it has on people when you’re not too busy trying to glare at them or skin them alive with one look. Even Sho-chan has more awareness regarding that compared to you.”  
  
He frowns at Nino’s casual use of Sakurai’s name. “Why are you so familiar with him? ‘Sho-chan’?”  
  
Nino smiles, leaning against Jun’s desk. “I feel like I know a lot about him thanks to your detailed account of your memorable first meeting.” Nino leans forward, peering at him before continuing, “Is he still an asshole in your eyes, Jun-kun? Don’t worry, it’ll be our secret.” Nino puts a finger on his lips for effect and Jun swears that sometimes he hates Nino, even if Nino is his closest friend.  
  
“No,” he finds himself admitting because it’s only right that he does. Sure, Sakurai made mistakes, something he gave one hell of an apology for (it’s not every day that Jun gets to eat stuff from Freestyle for free), and from what Jun saw today, Sakurai has a fondness for his sister, a side Jun himself never really saw before.  
  
Rather than an asshole, Sakurai is now someone who has Jun’s curiosity and genuine interest, something he will never admit to Nino or to anyone. He thinks admitting it to himself is bad enough.  
  
Nino pulls away, but not before shooting him a knowing smirk. Jun really hates it when Nino does that. “Call him,” Nino says, his lips twitching slightly as a gesture towards the card Jun has between his fingers. “We need to know more about Mai-san, after all. And who else can tell us better about her than Sho-chan himself?”  
  
Jun cannot argue with that. It’s what they usually do with One Love, contacting their clients’ closest relatives and have them talk about the clients. It’s their way of getting to know what can their clients possibly want, and it’s an approach that has always been effective.  
  
Still, Jun doesn’t want to admit defeat, so he says, “I can always call her fiancée,” something Nino cackles at.  
  
“Jun-kun,” Nino says, a smile on his lips, “call him. You know I’m right when I say that he can tell you things her fiancée doesn’t even know. He’s her sister. He’s obviously fond of her, you’ve seen the way he looked at her when she talked about she wanted. He has known her all her life, and I really don’t see why I have to tell you these things seeing as you know these things already. Eight years, remember?”  
  
Jun fiddles with the card in his hand, twisting the small piece of cardboard. He knows Nino is right. Nino is always right on most things, and this is one of those. He has to talk to Sakurai Sho in one way or another in order to get to know the bride better. Since Jun caters to satisfying every wish and request his clients’ make, it’s only part of his job if he asks Sakurai Sho out for coffee to discuss preliminary matters about the wedding.  
  
That’s how Jun finds himself waiting at Henri Charpentier in Ginza a week and a half later, his fingers tapping the table surface. He’s five minutes earlier than his appointed time of 12:00 with Sakurai Sho. Jun can still remember how Sakurai took the call, the way his voice gave way to his nervousness when Jun simply asked if they can meet each other for coffee because he has something he needs to know.  
  
Jun didn’t give a lot of details, just that he wants to meet at this café for lunch. Since it’s a weekend, Jun figures he won’t cause any disruption in Sakurai’s busy schedule as a marketing head. He leans back on his chair, watching the people outside.  
  
He hears someone approach his table and Jun turns, seeing Sakurai wearing a black jacket over a white shirt he didn’t bother to button, slightly revealing his collarbones. Jun feels a little hot in his rose-colored long sleeves, and from the way Sakurai looks at him, Jun is sure the man isn’t aware how good-looking he is in casual wear.  
  
Jun never really had the opportunity to appreciate the way Sakurai looks like because this is their first casual meeting, despite this not being their first meeting at all.  
  
“I’m sorry, were you waiting for too long?” Sakurai asks, and Jun hurriedly looks at his watch because he just realized that he spent more than five seconds staring at Sakurai when the man arrived.  
  
“No, I’m just early,” he says, because it’s exactly 12 noon in his watch. A salary man is rarely late, and Jun is certain that Sakurai has a thing regarding schedules given the man’s job. He gestures for Sakurai to join him, and Jun thinks it’s unfair when Sakurai removes his black jacket to drape it over his chair, revealing a long-sleeved white tee. He rolls his sleeves up before taking a seat, and Jun pushes his glasses to the bridge of his nose to distract himself.  
  
Shit.  
  
Now that Sakurai’s sitting across him, Jun can see for himself just how the man’s round face can offer a particular brand of charm Jun never expected to see. Sakurai calls for a waiter, and with the man’s face tilted, Jun can see the line of Sakurai’s jaw and he has to will himself to look away because he’s beginning to entertain ideas which are relatively alarming.  
  
Sakurai orders a plate of salad and omelette, and Jun asks for a lagsane bologneza. With the waiter dutifully taking their orders and taking his leave, Jun leans back on his chair and concentrates to get back to business.  
  
He decides to be more daring so he uses Sakurai’s given name. “Sho-san,” he begins, and Sakurai turns to him with curious eyes, “I’m here to ask you to tell me about Mai-san.” Jun figures he best let Sakurai know what he came for. Nino kept on saying that it sounds like they’re going on a date, but Jun is used to such comments from Nino so he’s also used to ignoring any of those.  
  
He supposes that’s how they look like to the café’s other patrons. Jun has seen how some of the women in other tables followed Sakurai with their eyes, and the worse part is, Jun is almost a hundred percent positive that Sakurai noticed none of it.  
  
He’s not aware of anything, and frankly, that pisses Jun off.  
  
Jun pushes his glasses back up his nose. “I always thought I deliver better when I know a side to my clients that didn’t come directly from them,” he explains. He has his eyes locked on Sakurai’s collarbones which peek at the edges of the guy’s shirt, and Jun shuts his eyes briefly to mask what he’s doing in case Sakurai’s looking at him.  
  
Sakurai leans back on his chair, looking thoughtful. It’s a good look on him, the way he has his head tilted to the side and his lips slightly pouted. Jun wonders if this is exactly what Nino meant by a lack of self-awareness.  
  
Sakurai licks his lips before speaking, and Jun wants to curse at him for doing that, but Sakurai is a client so he doesn’t. He keeps all of his frustrations to himself as he listens on how Sakurai begins to talk about his sister, about how she grew attached to a pet turtle and cried on her brother’s shoulder when the turtle died. Jun listens intently as Sakurai tells him about his frequent lunches with his sister, at her insistence that her brother works so hard so it’s up to her to make sure that he still takes proper care of himself.  
  
“She worries a lot about me,” Sakurai explains with a sheepish smile. “Isn’t that odd? She’s the younger one and yet she feels like she has to look after me when I can look after myself.”  
  
Jun plops his chin in one hand and he smiles absentmindedly. “Sounds like something someone close to you will do, if I can be honest.” Sakurai’s eyes shift to meet his, and Jun continues, “Not that you look like someone who can’t take care of yourself, but you do seem like the type who needs looking after from time to time.”  
  
Sakurai pouts at him and Jun sort of hates how tempted he feels to lean forward and kiss Sakurai just because. “That was the only time I went to a wrong wedding,” Sakurai says in a small voice, obviously getting what Jun’s hinting at.  
  
Jun laughs, and in his momentary glee, he fails to notice how Sakurai’s expression shifts. “You’re never letting that go, are you, Matsumoto-san?” Sakurai asks him, and Jun keeps the smile on his face.  
  
“You can’t deny it was one heck of a meeting,” he says. Jun suddenly feels he’s veering out of topic and he tries to get back on track immediately, alarmed that he can easily lose himself in a conversation with Sakurai. He’s too distracting and Jun is easily distracted by him, and putting that together can’t lead to anything good. “What’s she like, with her friends, with you and your family?”  
  
Sakurai looks thoughtful again, then he’s telling Jun that Mai is a determined person who can be depended on, someone who cherishes her family and friends equally. Sakurai begins to talk animatedly about how his sister changed over the years, how she grew up from a small girl who cried about turtles to a reliable person in her own right. Jun gets more than a glimpse of just how fond Sakurai is of her sister, and he finds himself smiling and nodding every now and then, even as he and Sakurai eat their lunch.  
  
Sakurai continues to describe Mai in a way only an elder sibling would, and Jun finds himself inevitably drawn in. Sakurai has a way with words, the way he ponders on everything he’s going to say and the way he makes sure that what he means gets across is something Jun finds himself admiring. Sakurai speaks with confidence and the right amount of charm, and Jun’s sure that the man himself isn’t aware of the latter and he confirms it when Sakurai suddenly looks at him with embarrassment.  
  
“Sorry,” Sakurai suddenly says, poking at his salad. “I’m boring you, right?”  
  
Jun shakes his head, finding that he wants to be honest. “No, you’re not. You’re really fond of her,” he says, hoping his sincerity can reach Sakurai. For all the seemingly casual uses of the man’s given name, Jun’s head can’t call him as Sho because he feels something will change in him if he does so.  
  
Sakurai tilts his head slightly. “I think anyone will be towards their own sibling,” he tells Jun, and yes, that might be true, but Jun thinks no one can speak as dedicatedly and as animatedly as Sakurai for more than an hour. Jun is not bored, he finds himself immensely fascinated by what he just learned and with the person who told him about it.  
  
“Do you want dessert?” Sakurai asks him suddenly, and Jun flashes him an amused smile before nodding. They order a mont blanc and a Crêpe Suzette and Jun watches how Sakurai seemingly fidgets in his seat when the waiter left, like he doesn’t know what to do with the silence.  
  
Jun decides to save him because he can’t trust himself to not find anything that Sakurai does as something not endearing. “I might need your input every now and then, Sho-san,” he says carefully as he takes a sip from his drink, deliberately not looking at Sakurai’s face for now. In Jun’s periphery, he can see how Sakurai straightens up.  
  
“Sure, uh, anything you need,” Sakurai mutters, slightly stumbling over his words and Jun hides his smile behind his mug of latte. Was it only a few moments ago that Jun got to see a confident side to Sakurai? Jun finds it a bit difficult to reconcile the confidence from earlier to this nervousness he’s now seeing, but a part of him considers the contrast as something pleasing.  
  
If anything, he just finds Sakurai more interesting because of it.  
  
Jun puts down his mug and nods. “Which means I may have to call you once in a while,” he informs Sakurai beforehand. “Don’t worry, I’ll try not to disrupt your schedule and keep the calls to a minimum.”  
  
Sakurai looks offended by that because he’s suddenly shaking his head at Jun. Jun tries not to smile at Sakurai’s enthusiasm and fails utterly, finding it endearing and even cute. “No, no, don’t worry about it. You’re… more than welcome to contact me, Matsumoto-san.” Sakurai’s expression suddenly shifts to panic and Jun can only watch him in amusement. “For the planning of course, I wasn’t really implying anything.”  
  
Jun plops his chin in his hand and settles for observing Sakurai unabashedly. “Sho-san,” he begins, saying it in such a way that Sakurai looks at him and meets his eyes (Jun wills himself not to look away no matter what). When he’s certain that Sakurai’s attention is on him and him alone, Jun smiles.  
  
“I look forward to working with you,” he says, and he fails to suppress a small laugh when Sakurai manages a weak nod.  
  
Their dessert arrives, and Jun is able to keep a lighthearted conversation with the man he labeled as an asshole on first meet. The afternoon ends with him finally referring to Sakurai as Sho in his head, and Jun thinks he has made more than enough progress for now.  
  
\--  
  
Sho spends the next months alternating between driving Mai around whenever Eiji-kun isn’t available and having lunches with Matsumoto who keeps him informed because Eiji assigned him to be the best man. Eiji’s elder sister is Mai’s maid of honor, and Sho supposes that makes it all fair.  
  
Sho learns a lot about Matsumoto as the days go by. He learns that Matsumoto is used to being called as someone intimidating because of his face, that Ninomiya is right when he claimed to Sho that Matsumoto is not as scary as he looks like back then at Aiba and Becky’s wedding.  
  
He learns that Matsumoto is a passionate individual who always seeks to deliver to the best of his abilities, never settling for less when he can have more. He learns that Matsumoto pays utmost attention to what he has to say and balances out Sho’s views on Mai with his own, in hopes that he will come out with a fitting list of suggestions for Sho’s sister.  
  
Sho also finds out that he underestimated the depth of his attraction towards Matsumoto, now that he gets more than a glimpse of the man’s work ethic and views. In a way, Matsumoto seems as dedicated as him towards what they respectively do for a living despite the differences, and Sho is, simply put, completely smitten with Matsumoto as the months progress.  
  
He hears nothing but praise for Matsumoto whenever he meets Mai and Eiji, and their positive feedback do nothing but help heighten Sho’s seemingly unwavering attraction. If he ever had doubts on whether he was truly attracted to Matsumoto, they all disappear to give way to a truth that yes, he is, truly and inevitably.  
  
A day comes that he has to pick the proper suit and Mai, apparently, entrusts Matsumoto with everything now that when Sho gets a call from the wedding planner, Matsumoto tells him that he is to dress up for they’re going to Gotemba to find something suitable for Sho. Sho has known never to question to Matsumoto and he finds himself mumbling something like an immediate agreement before hanging up.  
  
In an hour, Sho finds himself in Matsumoto’s car, a black Audi that suits Matsumoto like most things around him. Sho suddenly wishes he wore something more appropriate for his ride instead for contenting himself with a patterned cardigan over a simple shirt.  
  
“I didn’t take you away from anything important, did I?” Matsumoto asks as he steps on the gas and keeps his focus on the road.  
  
Sho shakes his head. “I was just finalizing a report, it was nothing major.” It’s not a lie. Yokoyama’s paperwork needed only a few quick revisions, and Sho knows he can easily continue doing that when he gets back home. Besides, Matsumoto made it clear with the phone call that they have to go now and Sho, well, wants to see Matsumoto so he snapped his laptop shut and did as Matsumoto told him to do.  
  
Months of working together and sharing ideas (sometimes even after midnight, Matsumoto drops him a line while he’s typing up proposals and he always accepts, thinking that Matsumoto’s voice is the break he needs from all the work he’s doing), Sho is still not comfortable with addressing Matsumoto differently. He always called him Matsumoto-san or lately, Matsumoto-kun. Sho, for some reason, can’t find it in him to call Matsumoto by his given name because he thinks he still hasn’t earned the right to address the man that way, even if his own sister refers to her wedding planner as “Jun-san” now. Matsumoto never offered him the privilege to call him by another name, so Sho sticks with what he’s given. Even in his head Matsumoto is Matsumoto. As much as Sho wants to call him Jun, he resolves not to, at least until Matsumoto tells him otherwise.  
  
And that’s something Matsumoto never did even if he’s been a close associate of Sho for more than seven months now.  
  
Mai is getting married in less than two months from now, and Sho tries not to think about that happening because that will mean that his lunch meetings with Matsumoto, something he has learned to look forward to, are soon coming to an end. He has become accustomed to talking to Matsumoto over a meal, sometimes over the phone, and Sho thinks it’ll take a while for him to get used to the way it was before when this is all over.  
  
He feels Matsumoto tap on his shoulder, and Sho nearly jumps in surprise. Matsumoto’s grinning, an indication that he saw Sho’s surprise. “I asked you a question, Sho-san,” Matsumoto says teasingly as they turn into a corner and stop to wait for the traffic lights to change. “Shall I repeat it?”  
  
Sho feels his cheeks reddening in embarrassment. He looks down as he says, “Sorry, I was thinking of something,” of you, his brain supplies for him, and Sho has to bite his lip to keep the words in.  
  
He hears Matsumoto’s laugh, a sound he has grown fond of hearing ever since their meet-up at Henri Charpentier. It seemed like a long time ago, now that Sho remembers it. “I said, have you eaten anything?” Matsumoto says, his smile never leaving his lips as Sho tries his best not to stare.  
  
“I haven’t, not really,” Sho replies as he glances at the digital clock on Matsumoto’s car. It’s a little over one in the afternoon and it’s only now that Sho realizes that he hasn’t even had breakfast yet. He was so preoccupied with revising his staff’s reports that he had forgotten to feed himself again.  
  
Matsumoto hums knowingly, like he has expected that answer. In all the months they’ve known each other Matsumoto never fails to tell him that he needs looking after, that in a way, Matsumoto understands Mai’s insistence on spending time with Sho once in a while because despite Sho’s endless claims that he can handle himself, he tends to neglect himself from time to time. “You don’t mind if we eat something first before shopping, do you?”  
  
The lack of breakfast is only sinking now and Sho is honestly feeling hungry to the point that he doesn’t mind what he gets to eat as long as he eats. “No, that sounds fine,” he says, knowing that Matsumoto will take him to someplace that offers great food. Matsumoto has a pretty remarkable taste in food. He has the tendency to lean towards Italian but he likes traditional Japanese cuisine as well. Matsumoto can be a food gourmet and Sho won’t be surprised.  
  
In fact, he’ll be more fascinated. Matsumoto has the uncanny ability of surprising him, and Sho finds himself delighted whenever he gets to learn something new about Matsumoto. Matsumoto probably learns more about him in equal measure, if he’s interested in Sho at all. But Sho never really got that vibe from him despite all of Ninomiya’s not so subtle hinting, so he tries not to spoil anything by hiding away his unwavering attraction towards his sister’s wedding planner. Sometimes he fails at it, but he hopes that he doesn’t fail gloriously for it to become too obvious to the point that brushing it off will no longer work.  
  
And because Matsumoto never gave him any indication that he’s aware of Sho’s attraction, Sho selfishly interprets that as a permission to continue feeling this way towards him. Sho wonders how he looks like in Matsumoto’s head right now. Does he come off as someone respectable, someone decent? Someone actually worth the time or someone who is just Matsumoto’s client by extension? Does Matsumoto listen to what he has to say because it’s part of his job to do so or because he’s genuinely interested to hear whatever it is Sho has to say?  
  
Sho wonders about a lot of things regarding Matsumoto, and sometimes those thoughts follow him at night and in his dreams. He dreams that instead of Matsumoto-san or Matsumoto-kun he’s calling him Jun, and in those dreams Jun smiles at him like he’s truly pleased to hear Sho say his name. Sometimes his dreams extend to something else, to things he can only dream of doing. In those dreams he sees himself touching Jun and getting touched by Jun in return, he sees himself kissing every single marking that surrounds Jun’s lips and Jun kisses him back. He sees his hands tracing various patterns on Jun’s cheek, neck, taking his time to discover every bit of Jun’s skin.  
  
When it’s time for Sho to wake up, he’s suddenly back to reality and Jun becomes Matsumoto again, and he finds himself trying his best to be contented with impromptu lunch meetings and occasional visits to One Love. He tells himself that hearing Matsumoto’s voice and laughter is enough, even if all they seem to talk about are the progresses of Mai’s wedding with Eiji-kun and how the planning is going smoothly.  
  
Sho knows that he can’t complain about anything because he’s getting so much more than he expected if he considers the origins of him meeting Matsumoto. He knows he has no right to ask for more when he’s getting more than what he imagined from that somehow fateful day of Sora and Ran’s wedding. He knows he’s fortunate enough to be this close to Matsumoto, to be where he is right now because he has a hunch that a lot of people would have wanted the same opportunity. Sho is certain that he’s not the first person to admit attraction towards Matsumoto.  
  
And yet despite all that, Sho still finds himself wishing for more because he wants to know how it feels to hold Matsumoto’s hand and if the sensation it will give him is similar to what he gets from his dreams. He wants to be able to call Matsumoto by his given name because he has a lovely name, and Sho wants to see the look on Matsumoto’s face if he says it.  
  
Sho can’t do any of these things and he only feels more helpless every time he gets to meet Matsumoto, to see the man himself so close to him and yet not close enough. There are so many things Sho wants to act upon but he knows he’s not allowed to do so because his relationship with Matsumoto is strictly professional and there can never be anything more to it. He knows he should be happy that he has come to know someone so enthralling, so passionate, and so dedicated and that he should be satisfied and thankful for the privilege, but it’s just so hard sometimes.  
  
It’s hard to be contented with everything every time Matsumoto smiles, every time those smiles reach his eyes. It’s hard to be professional every time he hears “Sho-san” from Matsumoto’s lips because he finds himself wishing Matsumoto will just drop the honorific and call him by his name.  
  
“We’re here,” Matsumoto says as he pulls over, and Sho looks up to read the sign that says Trattoria la Michelina. Matsumoto obviously took him to an Italian restaurant, and Sho resolves to keep his silence because he can’t trust himself not to let what he feels seep through should he try to speak now. He tries to focus on the fact that he’s hungry and it works, but only slightly.  
  
He unbuckles his seatbelt and waits patiently for Matsumoto to unlock the doors. Sho only turns to look at Matsumoto questioningly when Matsumoto doesn’t do anything, and it’s then that Sho sees that Matsumoto’s looking at him in an expression he can’t define.  
  
“Matsumoto-san?” he croaks, and Matsumoto’s eyes narrow.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Matsumoto asks him, and now Sho can put a name to what he sees on Matsumoto’s face: concern. He looks genuinely concerned and worried for Sho but Sho doesn’t know why so simply tilts his head in question.  
  
Matsumoto doesn’t relent. “You’ve been silent for a while, is something wrong?”  
  
Panicking, Sho answers immediately, “Nothing’s wrong,” despite his desire to claim that everything is wrong because he wants nothing but to act on what he feels, something that only grew stronger as the months went by. He wants to say that he’s scared of the day of the wedding because that will be the last time he can see Matsumoto. He wants to tell Matsumoto how he has come to cherish their shared meals together, how he has grown accustomed to Matsumoto’s presence despite never getting the permission to call him by his given name.  
  
Instead, Sho says none of these things and repeats, “Nothing’s wrong.” He hopes his Matsumoto will buy his determined stare and let it all pass. “I’m hungry, aren’t you?”  
  
Matsumoto doesn’t look convinced, but he does unbuckle his seatbelt and unlocks the doors. “Let’s eat,” is all he says to Sho, and Sho can only follow him.  
  
They mostly spent their meal in silence, something that has never happened before, and Sho wonders if it’s all his fault. Matsumoto tries to engage him into a conversation but Sho feels he’s inadequate at giving proper responses that they spend the rest of their meal and the rest of the drive towards the boutique with nothing but nervous energy between them.  
  
Sho knows he screwed up, that Matsumoto interpreted his claims of nothing being wrong as his way of dismissing things when it reality he just doesn’t want to make things uncomfortable between them, not now when he’s no longer an asshole to Matsumoto’s eyes, but Sho supposes his luck is shit because he’s probably working his way back towards that status once more, with the way he handled today’s lunch.  
  
Matsumoto picks a suit for him one after another, asking him to put the coat on like he has only met Sho today and Sho tries to quell the hurt he inevitably brought upon himself. Matsumoto finally decides on an Armani suit, and when Sho comes out of the dressing room feeling immensely guilty and exposed, Matsumoto looks at him from head to toe and nods to himself.  
  
Matsumoto approaches him carefully, with guarded steps like he’s worried that Sho might do something unexpected so Sho remains in place in hopes of assuring him that nothing of the sort will happen. It’s only then that he notices that Matsumoto’s holding a crimson tie. Matsumoto raises the hand holding the tie, as if he’s asking for Sho’s approval, and Sho simply nods. He likes the color, he thinks it fits Mai’s motif and it looks formal enough for a best man.  
  
Sho holds his breath when Matsumoto steps into his personal space to put the tie on him. This close, Sho can see nothing but pure concentration on Matsumoto’s very brown eyes and Sho says, “I’m sorry,” before he even realizes it.  
  
Matsumoto’s hands freeze in their movement, then the man seemingly regains his composure and continues tugging on the tie to put it on Sho properly. “What for?” Matsumoto asks, a slight frown on his face.  
  
“I don’t know,” Sho admits. He has no idea what he apologizes for, only that he has to get the words out because he can’t take a second of Matsumoto’s coldness. “For earlier. For everything.”  
  
Matsumoto looks at him in the eye, his hands still on Sho’s tie. “You’re obviously upset by something and I don’t know what that is,” Matsumoto tells him, and Sho can’t find it in him to deny anything when Matsumoto’s so close to him.  
  
“But if there’s anyone who should apologize, it’s me,” Matsumoto continues, tugging on his tie one last time. “It wasn’t my place to ask, Sho-san, and I’m sorry for that.” Matsumoto buttons his coat for him and Sho can only stare at the other man despite his fingers itching to yank Matsumoto back to him and tell him something, anything to explain things. But Sho never really handled himself adequately when Matsumoto Jun’s concerned, so he remains in place, already missing the feeling of Matsumoto’s fingers on his person despite the layers of clothing separating them. He can only imagine what’s going through Matsumoto’s mind right now.  
  
When Matsumoto finally steps away, Sho finds that he misses the proximity, the feeling of Matsumoto sharing the same space as him and he hates himself for not being able to do a thing. Matsumoto gives him another once over before nodding in approval, pointing to a mirror for Sho to see how he looks like. Sho turns, and he hears Matsumoto say, “I think your sister will approve.”  
  
“Yeah,” Sho says, his mind already drifting and counting the days till Mai’s wedding, and something like dread sits in the pit of his stomach as he looks at Matsumoto’s reflection behind him in the mirror. “I think she will.”


	5. Chapter 5

When he finally dropped Sho off, Jun spends his drive home wondering what he did wrong.  
  
Sho’s sudden change in demeanor was something he didn’t expect because all this time Jun thought he managed to find a common ground with Sho. From Sakurai he now refers to Sho as Sho in his head, and there are instances wherein he called Sho as Sho-kun instead of Sho-san.  
  
Jun can say that he tried his best to keep his relationship with Sho entirely professional, but that has grown difficult to achieve as the days went on and the weeks turned into months of association. He has to remind himself that Sho is a client, that they’re only working together because Sho’s sister is getting married and as soon as the marriage takes place, Sho will be out of his life as much as he will be out of Sho’s. He has to remind himself from time to time that he can’t act on anything he’s feeling, because he’s attracted. He found himself attracted to Sho the first time he made Sho laugh when he jokingly remarked that should the guests need entertainment, they can always have Nino dress up as somebody else.  
  
And ever since Jun acknowledged that fact that he is attracted to his client’s brother and best man, he tried his best to rein all of that in and keep his distance. He knows he can’t act on anything no matter how badly he wants to because he never got the sense that Sho might be interested in something more. Jun respectfully distanced himself from Sho because of that, and because Sho is a client and he has never been open to the idea of pursuing anything with a client.  
  
Not that Sho’s the one getting married, but Jun has a lot of respect for him and his sister, so he tries his best not to jeopardize their good working relationship in any way. He’s thinking he excels at it, that is until Sho’s silence from earlier and his obvious distress about something that Jun has no right to know, but Jun still found himself asking because he’s worried about Sho and terrified that Sho found out about what he thought he was so exemplary at hiding only to be proven wrong.  
  
In the end, he apologized for his impulsiveness and he made a mental note to himself never to presume anything involving Sho ever again. He’s nothing but a wedding planner, and he supposes Sho will never consider him for anything else more than that because his relationship with Sho is something that’s based on the fact that he’s the guy who helps plan the wedding of Sho’s sister, he’s the guy being paid to plan a wedding, not to ask matters about Sho’s personal life.  
  
Nino has told him countless times that he should just ask Sho out because he claims that “he’s literally over the moon for you, Jun-kun, and you’re the only one who doesn’t see it.” Jun doesn’t think that’s true because he stubbornly believes that he ought to know better, being the one who gets to see Sho every week, sometimes more than once a week, and he never, not even once, felt that it might be mutual so he sticks to what his job entails even if it’s always a challenge every time Sho’s there.  
  
Because Sho does this laugh that gives Jun the idea that Sho’s really amused, really pleased at whatever Jun’s telling him, his eyes crinkling at the sides as he gives in to a fit of giggles. Sho has this way of humming in acknowledgement at everything he’s saying, be it over lunch or over the phone, and to Jun it sounds like Sho truly listens, like Sho really makes time for him just to hear what he has to say.  
  
Even if Jun vowed to himself not to put any meaning to it because Sho’s just a very dedicated and devoted person (it’s his sister involved, of course he’ll act that way), he still fails in believing that most of the time because Sho has this way of convincing him that no one else ever had.  
  
Jun honestly wishes he can take back the asshole comment from months ago because Sho’s so far from that. Jun feels like he is the asshole all along, having refused Sho’s peace offering of savarin way, way back after refusing Sho’s apology, and now here, at this point where he puts meaning to what Sho does and putting their good working relationship in jeopardy. He feels like a presumptive jerk, thinking it might be something more when Sho might be simply putting in a lot of effort in meeting him multiple times each week because of the wedding that’s coming in a little over a month.  
  
Jun has become accustomed to seeing Sho every few days that he knows he will be having a hard time adjusting once the wedding is over. Jun has grown to expect his lunch meals with Sho, something they spend mostly discussing about the wedding, but Jun won’t deny enjoying every single moment of those meals. It’s during those times that he gets to see a side of Sho he never saw before because he never bothered to look, and he’s thankful for that opportunity. He treasures it, the fact that he gets to know who Sho is and gets to see more of the man he’s been terribly rude to almost a year ago.  
  
They’ve come so far and yet, more often than not, Jun feels that they haven’t come far enough.  
  
In less than two months Sho’s sister will get married, thus ending her arrangement with One Love, and by extension, ending whatever arrangement Jun has with Sho. He will never see Sho again after the wedding, and frankly, Jun doesn’t think he has any right to see Sho, unless Sho’s getting hitched and would want to avail his services. He hopes it won’t come to that. He doesn’t think he can plan for Sho’s wedding, not when he’s this intensely attracted to Sho.  
  
Jun thinks he better be prepared for what happens after the wedding takes place, so he spends the next weeks resorting to polite acknowledgements of Sho’s presence, something Nino immediately noticed.  
  
“What are you doing?” Nino asks him, a week before the wedding happens. Nino definitely noticed that Jun kept a distance from Sho when Sho came in earlier to verify the guest list with Jun, something Mai obviously instructed her brother to do in her stead.  
  
Jun shrugs his shoulders as he splashes water on his face. He’s tired; it took a lot of effort to remain composed and detached when all he wanted was to give Sho an appreciative smile, something he used to do before he realized what he was doing. It was hard not to look like wanted something more when in reality he really, really did.  
  
“What are you talking about?” he asks back, wishing Nino will just drop it.  
  
Nino doesn’t, of course. “Don’t play dumb with me, Jun-kun, you know it never works,” Nino says, and he sounds like he’s chiding Jun that Jun immediately feels guilty. “You’re avoiding him, why? Last time I checked you guys were totally over each other and now you act like you’ve only met him yesterday. What are you doing?”  
  
Jun turns away from Nino to wipe his face. “You’re imagining things, as always,” he insists, and Nino clicks his tongue at him.  
  
“Don’t be difficult. What’s wrong? Did he say something bad, did he insult the shop? Did he say that the shop’s curtains look like moss under the light? Shall I go and kick his ass now?”  
  
Jun looks at Nino and finds that he can’t lie because Nino has known him since they were kids and Nino will always have his back despite his reputation of being a nosy little shit in Jun’s life. “The wedding’s in a week,” is all he says, hoping Nino will pick up on the meaning behind it.  
  
Nino is silent for a while, just observing him with concerned eyes. Finally, Nino sighs. “And you’re thinking you better prepare yourself for what happens after so what your obviously brilliant mind came up with is to avoid the only person you took a genuine interest in after such a long, long time?”  
  
Nino stands and walks towards the bulletin board, snatching the tiny yellow post-it labeled with ‘the number of times someone took the effort for Jun-kun’. He puts it right in front of Jun’s face as he holds on to it tightly. “Do you see the number in this piece of paper, Jun-kun?”  
  
Jun nods, remembering every instance that Nino added another marking. Nino looks at him seriously as he shifts his grip on the tiny post-it. “Do you know what this means?” Nino asks him.  
  
Jun does, and it means that Sakurai Sho has exerted more than enough effort to meet him halfway in the course of nine months because there is currently a tally of twenty-two written on the small piece of paper.  
  
Nino fixes him a look that clearly says he’s being stupid. “This means, Jun-kun, that I diligently kept track of all those times you asked Sho-chan for his input and how Sho-chan responded to you in those times. Are you forgetting how he rushed here simply because you left him a voicemail that said you needed his input on something?”  
  
Jun can never forget that, how Sho arrived only a day after he left a voicemail that simply said he had something he wanted to talk about. Sho obviously came back from his trip in Kyoto at that time, which was why Jun only left a voicemail, figuring Sho could come in his free time to discuss things with him.  
  
Instead, Sho came as soon as he arrived back to Tokyo, and Jun can still remember how warm he felt at seeing Sho’s face after not seeing him for a week because of his Kyoto business trip.  
  
“How many times did he do that?” Nino asks. “Don’t get me started on the phone calls. I didn’t even get to record most of that because I had this wedding I was working on so I was busy and away from time to time, but from what the others here are telling me, I’m lacking in my counting.”  
  
Jun shuts his eyes as he sighs. “After the wedding I’ll never see him again,” he reminds Nino. “After the wedding we will all go back to the way it was before.”  
  
He feels Nino open his palm and feels him put the post-it in his hand. “Is that what you want, Jun-kun? For things to end that way, without you finding out if you have a shot?”  
  
Jun crumples the post-it in his fist and walks towards the trashbin, throwing the piece of paper. It’s nothing but a reminder that Sakurai Sho has become someone special as the months went on and Jun doesn’t want to see it ever again because he knows it’ll be difficult to look at it once the wedding is over.  
  
He turns back to Nino, who only looks at him sadly. “It’s not really up to me to decide about that,” he says, flashing Nino a small smile. “I don’t know what you think Nino, but Sho-san and I, well, we were never that. There’s nothing to find out.”  
  
Nino drops the topic at that, and a week later, Jun finds himself tugging at his tie in an attempt to calm himself. He has prepared for this, or so he assures himself. He distanced himself from Sho after they picked out Sho’s suit and today is the last day Jun gets to see Sho with valid reason. He finds it strange that his first and last meetings with Sho both revolved around weddings and that his feelings towards Sho for those weddings are vastly different. When he met Sho, he wanted nothing to do with him to the point that he dragged Sho away just so he could watch Sho disappear. Now, Jun wishes he could do a lot of things with Sho despite the impossibility of it, wishes he doesn’t have to watch Sho walk away when this day is over.  
  
He finds himself wishing he had more time and that things were different.  
  
“Jun-kun?” he hears Mao call his attention and he turns to her. “They’re looking for you,” Mao pauses, undoubtedly catching onto a bit of what Jun feels. She’s as good as Nino is in reading him, and Jun’s sure that his face shows a bit of what he’s feeling right now because now is the only time he can get to show any of it. He will never allow himself to let a trace of what he’s feeling seep through when he finally stands there.  
  
Mao sighs before continuing, knowing he will want no form of comfort from her. “They’re looking for you,” she repeats, “they’re waiting in the hall.” She doesn’t clarify who’s waiting and Jun thinks she doesn’t need to. He nods in acknowledgement and Mao takes her leave. Jun takes one last look at his reflection before schooling his features to seriousness. He heads out, leaving all his frustrations and regrets and feelings for today’s best man behind him, turning on the switch for his wedding planner self.  
  
Things go according to plan and all of his interactions with Sho are civil, and if Jun ever catches a flash of confusion in Sho’s eyes, he considers it as part of the things he has to sacrifice. What he’s doing is for the best, after all. It’s for Sho’s own good too, that Jun keeps a distance between them. Jun thinks on the past nine months and how things changed between him and Sho, and he finds that he can’t look at Sho anymore once he entertains those thoughts because he feels guilty, he feels like a jerk for doing this to the only guy who ever got his own tally in Nino’s personal scoreboard.  
  
Who’s the asshole now?  
  
But Jun’s doing it to cope better with what’s to come and he thinks Sho will appreciate that, if Sho ever spares him a thought from now on.  
  
As the wedding progresses and the ceremony leads to the reception, Jun knows it’s only a matter of time before his job is done and his arrangement with Sho and his sister comes to an end. He continues double checking and inspecting every element that’s obviously somebody else’s job, but Jun does it anyway because he wants to keep himself preoccupied and busy. He wants to distract himself from the reality that this is the last time he will get to see Sho and that he will miss every meal he shared with Sho, every conversation they had, Sho’s voice, the way Sho laughed when Jun unexpectedly said something amusing, the way Sho’s eyes crinkled in his happiness, the way Sho never failed to make time for him.  
  
Jun will miss him and he will always regret not ever knowing how it feels to do so much more, to know the feeling of Sho’s hand against his own, to hear how his own name sounds like as it falls from Sho’s lips. He knows he will always carry that regret with him despite knowing full well that this is all for the better.  
  
Jun is standing somewhere in the corner of the venue and observing Mai and Eiji’s happy smiles and listening to everybody’s cheers as the newlyweds take their first dance when he feels someone tug at his sleeve. He turns, and he holds his breath when he sees that it’s Sho. Jun finds it difficult to look at Sho because it hurts to look at Sho after all the civility and the distancing but he wills himself not to look away because this might be the last time he can look at Sho's face.  
  
Sho looks incredibly dashing in his suit, and the fact that he’s wearing something Jun picked for him makes it all the more difficult to maintain eye contact. Jun wants him, something Jun himself only realizes now that Sho’s right in front of him, and he hates himself for wanting someone he can never have, someone who’s not interested him in the same way.  
  
Sho suddenly steps in his space and pulls him for a hug, and Jun’s entire body tenses in surprise. “Thank you,” he hears Sho say, Sho’s face currently buried on his shoulder. “I’ve never seen her so happy. Thank you, Matsumoto-san, for everything you’ve done.”  
  
Jun wants to say a lot of things, he wants to say that it’s part of his job to ensure that he fulfills what his clients ask for and he only did what was asked of him, he wants to say that Sho’s thanks are unnecessary because it’s only him doing what they paid for him to do, but he can’t think of anything else other than an apology for everything that he’s doing lately so he simply bites his lip and nods against Sho’s shoulder, hoping it’s enough. Being held like this, being thanked like this despite everything he did, it makes him feel like shit.  
  
Sho pulls away, and he meets Jun’s eyes to say, “Thank you,” once more before finally releasing the grip he has on Jun’s shoulders and walking away.  
  
Jun can feel his heart clenching at the sight of Sho taking his leave, knowing that this time Sho’s doing it for good, and he turns back the ongoing party in hopes that it can distract him from everything he’s feeling.  
  
After all, he chose this.  
  
He chose this because this is what he thought was the right thing to do. He chose this because he’s terrified of the idea of Sho finding out about how he feels and the possibility of Sho pushing him away because of it, so he did the withdrawing himself, thinking he’s saving the both of them from whatever it is the two of them didn’t bother to cross.  
  
Jun darts one last glance to the direction Sho had taken, and he wonders if he ever made the right decision at all.  
  
\--  
  
Mai invites him out to lunch four weeks after her wedding, and Sho finds that he misses the company, so he agrees. He meets up with her in the same café where Aiba met Becky, and it only took two forkfuls of salad before Mai asks him, “What’s up with you?”  
  
Sho is startled at the question and he frowns as an instinct. “What are you talking about?”  
  
Mai rolls her eyes at him. “You’ve changed a lot after my wedding, and no, you can’t deny it because I know you and I’m your sister.”  
  
Sho doesn’t really understand her reasoning sometimes but he knows there’s no point to argue with her because he can never win. “Aren’t you the one who changed? Being married and all,” he tries, hoping his deflection won’t be too obvious.  
  
It doesn’t work, obviously, because this is Mai and it doesn’t really take her a lot to know what Sho’s thinking. Mai leans back on her chair, an eyebrow quirked at him. “Is this your first lunch date ever since I got married?”  
  
Sho knows where this conversation is going but he desperately hopes he’s wrong. “Yes, and your point is?”  
  
Mai gives a pointed sigh and fixes him a look that clearly says he’s not being funny right now. “When the weekend comes I want you to do yourself a favor,” she tells him, a finger pointed at his face, telling him that this is something that has no room for argument. “I want you to get over what’s bugging you and go there and find him.”  
  
Sho nearly spits his drink at the mention of ‘him’ and he wipes his mouth with a napkin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he says, refusing to look at his sister. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”  
  
Mai plops her chin on top of her entwined fingers, her elbows resting on the table’s surface. “We both know that’s a lie so I want you to listen to me like you always do. Have I ever directed you towards immediate danger?”  
  
“No,” Sho says because it’s true. She always looked out for him, and Sho supposes that more than half a year of working with Matsumoto made her realize a thing or two. Mai has literally known him all her life and she obviously can see how far Sho’s interests towards Matsumoto extend despite Sho trying his best to hide it. He has never been able to hide things from her, and the fact that she’s here now and calling him out on his own bullshit is more than enough proof of that.  
  
His sister smiles at him. “So go. You should know by now that I’ll always have your back. It’s the least I can do for you.”  
  
Sho cannot look at her anymore so he doesn’t, but he does give her a nod to indicate that yes, he’ll go to One Love this weekend and find Matsumoto and hopefully do something about what’s bugging him for more than a year, ever since he went to the wrong wedding.  
  
Sho finds that things are easier said than done because when Saturday comes, he remains in his car, parked three blocks away from the shop itself. He doesn’t know what to do now that he’s here. He doesn’t think he can just barge in and ask for Matsumoto because he has never reached that kind of development with the man himself. Besides, even if Sho marches inside One Love and manages to ask for Matsumoto, he doesn’t know what to say to the guy because that’s the norm.  
  
It’s not like he’s getting married and has any need for Matsumoto’s expertise.  
  
And so Sho drives off, postponing his promise to his sister for another day which became another week, until it’s been three weeks and he’s always driving around One Love in hopes to catch a glimpse of Matsumoto. Sometimes he’s lucky, sometimes he sees Matsumoto and the huge dark frames perched on his face as the man walks inside and talks to various people. In those times Sho settles for driving around the area once more just so he can satisfy his personal need to see Matsumoto even from afar. He feels like a creep for doing such a thing, but it’s not like he can make a casual visit to the shop. Matsumoto did keep his distance a week or two before Mai’s wedding, and Sho understands why he did that. He can’t fault Matsumoto for it, not when he considered doing the same thing himself.  
  
Besides, Sho doesn’t even know if Matsumoto’s interested in him in that way. They had lunches, sure, they even had late night phone call sessions. Sho even went to One Love the moment he got back from Kyoto just because Matsumoto left a voicemail and he can never forget the smile on Matsumoto’s face when he came in the shop at that time. It’s the one smile from Matsumoto Jun that he has kept close to his heart.  
  
But all of that combined, all those reactions from Matsumoto, all those interactions they had could be just Matsumoto doing his job. All they ever talked about was Mai’s wedding back then. Matsumoto did show bits of himself to Sho (Sho learned that Matsumoto is the type who talks to himself when alone, that he talks to his appliances and greets himself good night before going to sleep), but it’s not like those were anything major. Sho supposes that just goes with the fact that they had to work together for more than half a year (Matsumoto consulted him for nearly everything before laying out any proposals to Mai and Eiji-kun).  
  
Maybe that’s the reason Matsumoto distanced himself from Sho. Their relationship was professional, his sister was literally paying Matsumoto to spend lunch with him, now that Sho thinks about it.  
  
And yet, Sho misses him and misses him terribly. He finds out that his attraction towards Matsumoto only increased especially now that Matsumoto got a new haircut and dyed his hair brown. He looks devastatingly appealing to Sho’s eyes that Sho wishes that lunch meals with Matsumoto are still part of his routine. He misses being around Matsumoto, he misses bearing witness to Matsumoto’s precision and meticulousness towards his work. He misses seeing Matsumoto smile at the simplest of things and laugh at even more simple things. He misses the intensity he used to see in Matsumoto’s eyes whenever Sho offers his input about something and Matsumoto considers his suggestion for a moment, sometimes for quite a long time.  
  
Sho has his face in his hands at the hopelessness of his situation, and that’s when he hears somebody knocking on his car window. He looks up hurriedly, startled at the sound, and he quakes in fear when he sees Matsumoto peering at him through his windows. Matsumoto knocks again, and Sho opens his car windows with shaking hands. Matsumoto places an arm against the ledge of Sho’s now open window, leaning ever so gracefully.  
  
How he does it, Sho doesn’t know. He doesn’t think anyone else can pull it off, and this close, Sho finally realizes just how much he missed seeing Matsumoto’s face. Sho wants to reach out and touch him, to tell him the things he never got to say because things suddenly became difficult just as they were beginning to get better. Sho wants to tell him that he missed him and he’s here to try and have a shot at something he tried to hide for more than a year.  
  
Matsumoto looks at him like he can’t believe he’s looking at Sho’s face, and Sho’s sure the same expression is mirrored on his own. It’s been more than two months since they got to see each other this close. If things between them are different, Sho knows that now is the perfect time for him to pull Matsumoto closer and find out for himself how it feels like to kiss him. But he can’t do that because things aren’t like that between them so Sho contents himself with just looking at Matsumoto’s face despite feeling that it’s not enough, that it’ll never be enough.  
  
Matsumoto licks his lips and Sho follows the movement. “You know, if you’re stalking me,” Matsumoto begins, his head tilted and a small smile dancing on his lips, and Sho panics, his cheeks heating up. He panics because Matsumoto definitely saw him driving by more than once, he panics because his attempt at being stealthy obviously failed big time.  
  
Still, it’s not like he’s stalking Matsumoto. It’s different. Sho simply wants to find the perfect timing, the perfect opportunity to talk to the guy and this, what’s happening right now, is not it. “No,” he denies, earning him Matsumoto’s eyebrow, “it’s nothing like that, Matsumoto-san. I’m sorry for making things uncomfortable, please don’t worry about it, I’ll take my leave, I’ll—”  
  
Sho doesn’t get to finish whatever he’s babbling about because Matsumoto reaches out and puts a finger on his lips, effectively silencing him. “I’m not finished yet,” Matsumoto says, and he doesn’t remove the finger he has on Sho’s lips. His touch burns and Sho wants to pull away, but he can’t move because the look in Matsumoto’s eyes is enough to keep him in place.  
  
Matsumoto still has that small smile on his face. “If you’re stalking me, you might as well walk inside the shop to get a better view.” He narrows his eyes at Sho. “Or are you thinking you have no reason to?”  
  
It’s only then that Matsumoto withdraws his finger, allowing Sho to speak. Sho has to swallow before talking, and even then he doesn’t trust his voice. “Something like that,” he admits quietly. He licks his lips because they feel too dry after Matsumoto placed his forefinger on top of them.  
  
Matsumoto suddenly grins at him, clearly amused by his answer. Sho can feel warmth climbing steadily to his cheeks, his stomach doing somersaults at the sight.  
  
“The savarin au rhum was delicious,” Matsumoto says suddenly, and Sho blinks at him.  
  
“What?”  
  
Matsumoto leans over, and now there’s less than four inches between his face and Sho’s and Sho swallows a lump in his throat at the sudden proximity. He feels Matsumoto’s hand reaching out, stroking the side of his face with a thumb and Sho can’t help shivering at the contact.  
  
“So bring those next time, okay?” Matsumoto whispers in his space, his thumb stroking Sho’s cheekbone one last time before finally pulling back and walking away, leaving Sho flushed and flustered for a long time, but mostly _sure_. He doesn’t think he can mistake Matsumoto’s intent after tonight.  
  
So Sho lets out a small laugh out of relief, something that turns into an entire fit of laughter altogether. He can’t believe he didn’t see it. He can’t believe he has been this stupid, that it took a determined Matsumoto Jun knocking on his car windows to make him get over himself.  
  
At least now he has a perfectly legitimate reason why he has to go to One Love.  
  
\--  
  
Jun tries his best not to think about his latest interaction with Sho, but he fails because he still can’t forget the feeling of finally touching Sho, how his fingerpad burned at the touch as he put it right above Sho’s soft lips, softness he would have wanted to find out with another part of his body that is not his finger, if only he had the chance.  
  
Truth be told, Jun missed him. He missed Sho’s tendency to laugh out loud when something amusing happens, he missed the way Sho listens to what he has to say because nobody ever truly listened like Sho did. He missed Sho and being around with Sho, the way Sho would carefully pick out a place for them to eat in and how Sho would plan for every single thing, as if he was the planner and not Jun.  
  
So the first time Jun saw Sho’s car driving past, he thinks his heart skipped a beat. To his disappointment, Sho never really entered the shop, and for weeks Jun tried to content himself with seeing the same SUV passing by at random hours.  
  
Even Nino noticed. ”This is the third time he passed by, Jun-kun. I swear if you don’t take that as a hint I will gladly usher you outside and wait beside you in the middle of the road so when Sho-chan passes by for the fourth time he will definitely not miss you. I think he’ll hit the brakes in time, but in case he doesn’t, you’re paying for my hospital fee all because I decided to be a good Samaritan.”  
  
It’s because of Nino that Jun took matters in his own hands, heading outside and waiting for Sho to pass by, only to find Sho’s car parked a few blocks from the shop. It’s because of Nino’s endless prompting that Jun should just “go out and meet him, for fuck’s sake,” that Jun had the courage to knock on Sho’s window that night and catch the man by surprise.  
  
It’s been three days since that happened, and Jun is trying his best not to give Sho a call or send him a message. Jun has no idea what’s going on Sho’s mind, but he’s sure that Sho feels the same way about him because his eyes that night told Jun everything he needed to know. He saw how Sho missed him, how everything must have been mutual all along, making everything that Nino said to be true, including the accusation that he and Sho are “just idiots who need to get over yourselves, as well as have a room to yourselves”.  
  
It’s been three days since he put his finger on Sho’s lips and he placed a hand on Sho's cheek, and Jun’s alone in the shop because Nino told everyone to clock in earlier than usual and leave Jun alone for an hour. Nino’s been doing that for three days now, and between him and Jun, it seems like Nino has the bigger faith in Sho rather than Jun himself. Jun will admit that he’s been waiting for three days, and he tries to quell any form of disappointment whenever Sho fails to turn up.  
  
It’s thirty minutes till closing time when Jun hears the chimes ringing, and he turns to the door. “Welco— oh, it’s you,” is what he ends up saying when he finds himself finally staring at Sho’s face. Jun walks past Sho to pull the blinds close, it’s up to him to close up anyway, being the last person around, using it to ignore his raging heartbeat.  
  
“Here to get hitched?” he asks when Sho is still not saying anything.  
  
“Here to ask someone out, actually,” he hears Sho say, and Jun tries his best not to smile.  
  
He raises an eyebrow. “Oh? And who might that be?” he asks, walking towards the glass doors and pulling the doors open to pull down the roll up. They have a back door which they use to leave whenever it’s closing time. The roll up makes a rather deafening noise as it hits the ground and Jun winces at the sound as he wipes his sweaty hands on his slacks.  
  
He's nervous and he can only hope that Sho feels the same right now so that Sho won’t see that he’s a little out of sorts.  
  
He turns back to Sho and he finally catches sight of a pastry box that is undoubtedly from Freestyle in Sho’s hands. “Someone who said that my fancy cakes were delicious,” Sho says, an answer to his question from earlier. Something warm bubbles up in Jun when he realizes that Sho still remembers how he called the savarin au rhum the first time Sho brought those pastries here.  
  
Has it been more than a year since that happened, when Sho turned up in One Love to apologize for doing what was probably the only thing in Jun’s life that infuriated him so much at first and only makes him thankful for happening right now? It feels like a memory of a lifetime ago.  
  
Had Sho turned up at the right wedding, they would never have met and Jun won’t be where he is right now, looking at Sho’s face after waiting for three days and holding himself back for months.  
  
Jun pulls the glass doors shut behind him, looking around the shop. “Hate to break it you, but Nino already went home,” he says with a grin.  
  
Sho snorts at that, shooting him an impatient look. Jun keeps the grin on his face, enjoying every moment of having Sho on the spot. “You’re not going to make it any easier for me, are you?” Sho asks, already sounding defeated.  
  
“Well, you kept me waiting,” he finds himself admitting, and Sho looks at him with renewed interest. "For three days. That's kind of cruel, don't you think? Add that to the fact that you crashed a wedding I planned for."  
  
Sho steps closer to him, but there’s still a respectable distance between them. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Sho asks, and Jun shakes his head.  
  
“No chance. That was quite an impression you left, Sho-san.”  
  
Sho looks at him like he can’t believe anything that Jun’s saying right now. “Tell me, Matsumoto-san. Do I have to crash another wedding just to get to know you?”  
  
Jun laughs at that, and he puts a hand over his mouth because he's so amused, so happy that Sho's actually here and that Sho’s on the spotlight right now. Serves him right for not turning up sooner, Jun thinks. Sho’s pouting now, and Jun sighs. He really can’t resist when Sho looks like that.  
  
“All right,” he says, finally agreeing to cut Sho some slack. Sho did say he was here to ask someone out, so Jun prompts him. “Ask.”  
  
Sho worries his lip at the prompting, and Jun finds that he likes seeing Sho worried and hesitant over the simplest things. “Would you say yes?” Sho asks, his uncertainty obvious in his voice. “If I ask you out?”  
  
Jun hums in thought. “Ask me out for something like a dinner date or out as in go out with you?” He doesn’t bother hiding the smile he feels like making because he truly enjoys the sight of Sho fidgeting, as Sho shifts his weight from foot to foot and continues worrying his bottom lip with his teeth.  
  
He’s like a kid, and Jun wonders how long has it been since Sho had done something like this. Jun’s a little rusty too, but not as rusty as Sho. Then again, Nino always says they’re both hopeless so maybe that makes them just right for each other.  
  
“Dinner first and hopefully the one after that in the long run,” Sho says, and he takes another step towards Jun.  
  
Jun purses his lips. “I don’t know,” he says, “so try asking now.”  
  
Sho takes a deep breath and he looks like he’s having such a hard time right now. Jun grins, finding the whole look on Sho rather endearing. “I know this place,” Sho begins.  
  
Jun merely hums.  
  
“I know this place and I think you’ll love it there,” Sho finishes with an expectant look.  
  
Jun cocks his head. “Is that what you think?”  
  
Sho openly sighs. “You’re making this so hard.”  
  
Jun takes a step forward, then another, followed by one more so that the only thing separating him from Sho is the box of savarin au rhum between them. Jun takes the box from Sho’s hands and places it on top of his desk before turning back to Sho and standing in Sho’s space. Jun decides to be bolder, putting his arms around Sho’s neck. He doesn’t miss Sho’s sharp intake of breath.  
  
“You know a place?” Jun asks, aware that his voice sounds far more gravelly than intended.  
  
He sees Sho swallow before he hears the man reply. “Yeah.”  
  
He lets his hands play with Sho’s hair, his fingers stroking Sho’s scalp and Sho shivers, a sigh escaping his full lips. “And you think I’ll love it there?” he asks again, merely repeating Sho’s words from earlier.  
  
The intensity he now sees in Sho’s eyes is unmistakable. “Yes.”  
  
Jun licks his lips, aware that Sho’s watching his every movement. For his part, Sho doesn’t touch him; he has his hands fisted on his sides and Jun wonders how long will Sho be able to keep that up. “Do you want me to say yes?” he asks against Sho’s ear, his lips coming into contact with Sho’s earlobe and Sho lets out a shaky breath.  
  
“I want you to,” Sho tells him, “but I also want you to be honest with me.” Jun draws back a little when he hears Sho say those words, and he wonders how Sho manages to surprise him even if he’s the one who’s currently cornering Sho at the moment.  
  
It’s one of the things that makes Sho Sho and one of the things that Jun finds that he likes about Sho, one of those things he always liked about Sho.  
  
“Matsumoto-san?” Sho says, coaxing him from his thoughts and Jun wants to laugh at the formality so he does.  
  
“Jun,” he says, making sure he’s looking at Sho’s eyes when he says it.  
  
Sho blinks at him, and Jun supposes it’s only natural that Sho can’t think straight when they’re finally standing together like this. He's having a hard time doing that too. “What?” Sho asks, his voice disbelieving.  
  
Jun smiles, his hands continuously playing with Sho’s hair. Sho’s hair is longer now, far longer than the last time Jun has seen him and it suits him. “If we’re going out for dinner, you might as well call me Jun.”  
  
Sho’s face finally breaks into a smile, and Jun feels Sho’s hands moving to his hips, not clutching territorially but only tentatively, like Sho’s testing out the waters. “Okay,” Sho says, licking his lips. “Jun?”  
  
Jun slightly tenses at the sound of his name finally falling from Sho’s lips. He long wondered how that would sound like, and it still didn’t prepare him from the real deal. “Yeah?” he asks, aware that he and Sho are finally on even ground right now.  
  
Sho smirks, something he never really did before and Jun finds that he likes the way it looks on Sho, likes the way that Sho’s finally confident, finally stepping up his game. “Will you go out on a date with the guy who crashed your best friend’s wedding?”  
  
Jun grins, wondering what the hell took this idiot in his arms so long. “Yes,” he says with a laugh, and he finally leans forward to kiss Sho, who meets him halfway.  
  
And somewhere in the back of his mind, Jun thinks, as he kisses Sho and Sho kisses back, maybe today he just got a bit closer to Hawaii.  
  
\--  
  
Sho lets out a gasp when Jun pushes him against the desk—Jun’s desk—the very same desk he found himself sitting across more than ten months ago, back when Mai’s wedding was still something they had to consult Jun about. Jun’s mouth is on his collarbone and Sho arches against Jun’s hands currently mapping out his abdomen under his shirt.  
  
“Jun,” he pants, and Jun answers by sucking at the crook of his neck, making him gasp yet again. “Jun, what about dinner?” he manages, and he feels Jun smile against his jugular.  
  
“We can always have your fancy cakes,” Jun tells him, and he continues nipping and sucking at Sho’s skin as his hands fumble with Sho’s belt and Sho pulls Jun’s head away from his neck to kiss him again.  
  
When he feels his belt buckle come undone, he pulls away from Jun’s mouth. “Really, here?” he asks, breathing heavily, and Jun smirks.  
  
“We have a backroom if you want a change of place?” Jun says, leaning forward to nip at his earlobe. “There’s a couch there,” Jun whispers huskily before licking at the shell of his ear. “Among many other things.”  
  
Sho shoves Jun off him and grabs Jun’s wrist in one hand and the box of what Jun calls as his fancy cakes. Jun lets out a laugh as he gets pulled towards the backroom, and once inside, Jun takes the box from him to shove it inside the fridge. Sho looks around, catching sight of the said couch and the bulletin board above it.  
  
“‘The number of times the people who came to this shop asked Jun-kun out’?” Sho reads aloud when he’s standing in front of the board and squinting at all things posted there. He turns to Jun for an explanation, and Jun simply shrugs.  
  
“Nino.”  
  
Sho turns back to the piece of paper and sees that there’s a tally of twenty-nine. Before he can say anything, Jun pushes him, the back of his knees hitting the couch. Once seated, Jun straddles him and tilts his face up for a kiss, and Sho happily obliges, his hands creeping under Jun’s shirt. For months, Sho thinks. No, for more than months, for more than a year in fact, he has wanted to do this, to know how it feels to kiss Jun and be kissed by Jun in return. He doesn’t want to stop, doesn’t think he can after all the time he spent holding himself back.  
  
He pulls away from Jun’s lips to ask, “Does that make me number thirty then?” remembering the tally of twenty-nine as his hands unbutton Jun’s shirt. Jun helps him remove it by shrugging it off his shoulders, and Sho drinks in the sight of exposed skin. He leans forward to press kisses on Jun’s chest, and he pulls Jun down to run his tongue over Jun’s nipple, liking the fact that Jun also has a beauty mark there. Sho can’t wait to find out which parts of Jun’s body have markings.  
  
Jun lets out a pleased sigh, his hands tangled in Sho’s hair and pushing Sho closer to his skin. “No, that doesn’t make you thirty,” Jun says, his hips grinding against Sho’s and Sho answers by tugging at Jun’s nipple with his teeth, making Jun hiss.  
  
“What does that make me then?” he asks absentmindedly, and Jun pulls at his hair to make him stop and meet Jun’s eyes.  
  
Jun smiles, pushing his shoulders back against the couch once more and leaning into his space, their breaths mingling. “It makes you number one,” Jun says as he plants series after series of kisses beginning from Sho’s neck down to Sho’s collarbones. “I’m making a new tally, a new scoresheet.”  
  
Jun tugs at his shirt and Sho lifts his arms to help Jun remove it, and Jun’s lips immediately latch on the point where his neck meets his shoulder once his shirt is out of the way. Sho tries to keep up with the conversation, managing a weak “And what’s the name of that one?”  
  
He feels Jun grin against his skin. “I’ll tell you later,” Jun promises, then he maneuvers his legs and kisses further down until he reaches Sho’s navel. Sho arches at the feeling of Jun licking at his navel, and Jun unzips him, Jun’s other hand on the waistband of his pants. Sho lifts his hips to help Jun get them off, and Jun only pushes them down to his ankles before he’s tugging at Sho’s boxers. Sho kicks both of his pants and boxers off, and he moans Jun’s name when he feels Jun’s mouth on him.  
  
“Jun,” he tries, and it ends in a gasp when Jun does something impressive with his tongue. “Jun, wait,” he says, pulling a little at Jun’s brown locks. Jun stops, looking up at him with questioning eyes. Sho tugs at Jun’s arm to pull him back up the couch and Jun obliges, placing both of his knees on Sho’s either side. Sho kisses Jun's sternum as he deftly undoes the button of Jun’s jeans. He pulls the material off when he finally gets Jun’s zipper open, and Jun gets off the couch to remove his jeans himself, sending it to the floor followed by his boxers.  
  
Sho’s throat feels too dry at the sight of Jun finally naked before him, and he reaches forward to pull Jun back to the couch. Jun straddles him yet again, and when Jun lowers himself and grinds down, they both moan at the feeling, Sho with Jun’s name and Jun with his. Sho’s dreams never turned out as good as this. Now that he has Jun, knows the feeling of touching Jun and getting touched by him in return, knows how Jun sounds like when he’s in pleasure, Sho thinks the long wait is so worth it.  
  
Jun places one hand between them, taking hold before grinding himself back down and Sho makes a pathetic whimper which Jun silences with a kiss. He groans against Jun’s mouth as he moves his hips in tandem with Jun’s, his hands on Jun’s sides and urging Jun along. He thinks he gasps Jun’s name out loud when Jun makes a wicked roll of his hips.  
  
Jun’s insistent hand moves in time with his hips and Sho eagerly meets Jun’s hand, his breath coming out in gasps. They’re in a hurry on account of holding back for so long and Sho has no problem with letting go for now, knowing that they can always take it slow some other time.  
  
Sho tilts his head to whisper filthy nothings in Jun’s ear, telling Jun how good it feels, admitting that he has long wondered how it feels like to do this with Jun and Jun makes a one guttural moan then he’s arching, body drawn tight and Sho joins him, his body giving in to its need at the same time as Jun’s does.  
  
After, when they come back down and are both trying to catch their breaths, Sho remembers Jun’s promise of later. He nudges Jun with a shoulder, gesturing to the bulletin board above them with a slight tilt of his head. Jun laughs softly, kissing his cheek before finally getting off him and grabbing a sheet from the stacks of papers at the far corner of the room.  
  
Sho stares unabashedly at Jun’s nakedness as Jun bends forward to retrieve a pen and scribble something, using the top of the tiny fridge as a makeshift table. From the look of things Jun appears to be quite flexible, and Sho honestly can't wait for the next moment he’ll get to find out just how so. He smiles at the promise of next time. There’s always a next time now that he and Jun reached something new, something that extends beyond lunch dates and suit picking in Gotemba.  
  
Jun comes back and shows him the piece of paper and Sho laughs, already imagining the look on Ninomiya’s face once he sees the new one. Jun hands him the pen and Sho draws the line himself, and he watches as Jun pins it directly on top of the scoresheet labeled with Ninomiya’s messy scrawl. Jun only takes a moment to examine the newest addition to bulletin board before he settles himself on top of Sho again.  
  
“So about that dinner,” Jun whispers near his ear as he nuzzles Jun’s neck, inhaling Jun’s scent. “You know this place?”  
  
Sho finds that he doesn’t really want to go anywhere, so he simply grins against Jun’s neck.  
  
“They deliver.”  
  
\--  
  
The next day, Jun doesn’t bother fighting the smirk on his face when Nino rushes out from the backroom and points a finger at him accusingly. He has no doubt Nino has seen the bulletin board and managed to piece together the events of last night, something that Jun remembers a lot, especially now that he’s meeting Sho tonight, to finally get that dinner they couldn’t the night before.  
  
“You," Nino starts, his voice disbelieving and his eyes wide and Jun just continues smirking, "you did what, and you did it where— of all fucking places and— you— with Sho— I _no_. Oh god,” Nino’s stammering and is actually at a loss for words and Jun wishes he has a camera just so can capture the look on Nino’s face.  
  
Nino takes a deep breath with his face buried in his hands. “No, no,” Jun hears him muttering, and Nino finally drags his hands down his face before raising both hands in front of Jun. “You know what, I really don’t want to know.”  
  
Jun laughs and he continues laughing even if Nino reaches over to give him a smack on the arm (“God damn you, Jun-kun!”), knowing that he finally managed to get back at Nino after so many years, and he has no one else to thank but Sho for it.  
  
Sho with his fancy cakes and his restaurants that deliver (something they never managed to avail last night but there’s tonight, so), Sho and his tendency to panic when he’s caught red-handed, something that Jun always found to be endearing.  
  
Jun is sure, as he laughs at Nino’s mixture of exasperated and disbelieving face, that this is one thing he wants to keep, one thing he wants to continue having for as long as he and Sho both want it. And from the way things are, it may take a long time for them to stop wanting it, and by then Jun is sure, he already went to Hawaii more than once.  
  
“You owe all of us a fucking couch, Matsumoto. A new one. Jesus. I’ll tell Sho-chan to pitch in too, god damn you both,” Nino grumbles, and Jun laughs, not minding it one bit.  
  
As long as he has Sho for an accomplice, it really doesn’t matter.  
  
\--  
  
On the bulletin board somewhere in the backroom of One Love in Chiyoda, there’s a newly pinned sheet of crisp white paper labeled with ‘the number of times Jun-kun managed to score’.  
  
There’s only one bar underneath the title.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a certain bullet [in this AU text post that I tag vomited into](http://sunblades.tumblr.com/post/107622120256/ironinkpen-yes-you-could-be-sad-about-your). The part with Jun screaming about something else is a bit I explicitly owe [yourbonesshake](http://archiveofourown.org/users/nintendomiya/pseuds/yourbonesshake). My thanks to you, Marissa, for helping to feed my imagination regarding this AU. ♥
> 
> This story also has a graphic [right here](http://sandralovesyou.tumblr.com/post/110128806710/au-meme-sunblades-asked-wedding-planner). My many thanks to Sandra for catering to such a request from me! :)


End file.
